3 Chinese nationals held for running illegal iPhone plant

Detectives have arrested three Chinese nationals for allegedly running an illegal iPhone assembly plant in the capital's Uttara and Nikunja areas.

The arrestees were identified as Tan Jian, Wu Jun, and Dong Hongwei.

During drives conducted on Wednesday, DB officials seized 363 iPhones of various models, a large cache of spare parts, machinery used for assembling phones, eight bottles of foreign liquor, and Tk 26,000 in cash, said Mohiuddin Mahmud Sohel, deputy commissioner (DB) of Mirpur Division, at a press briefing at the DMP Media Centre yesterday. 

Acting on a tip-off, a detective unit raided a house in Nikunja-1 around 5:30pm, where they made the arrests and discovered a "secret lab". 

Sohel said a gang had been operating for a year and a half, evading taxes and deceiving customers by selling assembled phones as original products.

When asked if any Bangladeshi nationals were involved, the DB official said they had found the names of some locals during preliminary investigation. "However, we cannot disclose the names at this moment for the sake of investigation."

Police said legal action against the arrestees is underway.