Drone-assisted Smuggling Ring Busted in Shenzhen

A smuggling ring has been using drones to transport refurbished iPhones into Shenzhen, China. Those responsible were caught after flying 500 million yuan ($79.8 million) worth of smartphones from Hong Kong to Shenzhen. Most of the smuggling operation was carried out in the middle of the night, with only a matter of seconds required to shift 10 iPhones at a time.

The group was using drones to fly two 660-foot cables between Hong Kong and the mainland.

Naturally the net is rife with ideas of how the crooks pulled it off.

"Send the drone over once with cable attached. Confederates on the other side attach the cable to a fixed point, say 15 feet off the ground. Drone flies back unraveling the cable, and lands onto the Hong Kong side. Smugglers attach a package of 10 phones to the cable with a carabiner, and the drone flies straight up. When the cable reaches a certain tension, the package slides down the cable, clearing the fence. The drone descends, repeat."