The incident occurred last Wednesday (Feb 15) as Gongbei customs said today (Tue) that the case has been dealt with in accordance with established mechanism.

According to the security camera footage released, the middle-aged Hong Kong man was playing with his phone when crossing the border and lowered his head to avoid eye contact with custom officers. Still, he was called to step aside for examination.

The man caught the officers off guard and suddenly ran straight into the border. Yet, he was intercepted by officers and security guards later, customs said.

The man was then taken to an examination zone and officers found a total of 46 phones strapped to his waist and legs.

Separately, Hong Kong customs arrested a 29-year-old man on Monday after officers also detected a smartphone smuggling case at the Shenzhen Bay control point ad seized over 400 smuggled smartphones worth about HK$4 million.

The smartphones were found in seven carton boxes inside a consignment loaded onto a truck.

Hong Kong customs said they will continue to combat cross-boundary smuggling activities with firm enforcement actions based on risk assessment and intelligence analysis.

They also reminded citizens that any person found guilty of importing or exporting unmanifested cargo could face a maximum fine of HK$2 million and imprisonment for seven years.