A batch of 335 iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus units were seized by customs officers at the Pudong International Airport in Shanghai and held for 5 days since these new Apple models came out. The customs believe 238 iPhones were being smuggled into Mainland China.

Shanghai customs officers said that they opened into five cases of suspected smuggling with 238 iPhones out of the 335, while the rest were returned to their owners once duty of 10 percent was paid.

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The seized phones were in the luggage of passengers, most of whom were Chinese on flights from Hong Kong, Canada, Russia and elsewhere.

Under China's customs regulations, cell phones are among twenty taxable items that must be declared and paid duty. The duty rate is 10 percent0 of the price on the receipt.

If cell phones are deemed for personal use, Chinese customs will charge the duty with the principle of "personal use and reasonable quantity." If the traveler would not like to pay duty, customs will return and ship the cell phones back. Customs can seize large quantities of cell phones in the case of serious smuggling.

As the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus are not yet available on Mainland China, some Apple super fans are willing to pay extremely high prices to get one. On the first publishing date of iPhone 6, high configured phones were once sold at 30,000 Yuan (US$4,889). The retail price of iPhone 6 Plus still keeps at 9,000 to 13,000 Yuan (US$1,467 to US$2,119).

As the smuggled phones are the only iPhone6 that Chinese people can get, the sellers can gain profit very fast with low risk. Lv Min, a cell phone store owner, said that the iPhone6 were in the smugglers' hands and in stock. "We sell the phones at the same time as we get them with stock price," said Lv.

Online cell phone store owner Ms. Chen said that the retail price could be 500 to 1000 Yuan (US$81 to US$163) more than the stock price.