By now we have heard stories of all kinds when it comes to people trying to steal and import objects by getting past border and airport controls. Most of these stories, however, usually involve illicit substances, or cash, and not… Nintendo Switch game cartridges.
In China, however, exactly this happened: a woman was arrested, she says HK01 (thanks, Tom’s Hardware), when some border agents at Liantang Port noticed that he was behaving and appearing suspiciously.
They therefore decided to investigate further, considering his behaviour “He didn’t give the impression of being innocent”.
Thus, they arrived at the discovery: the woman she had hidden 350 Nintendo Switch video game cartridges in her bra who was trying to bring China in, with a value which was estimated at around 70,000 yuan (just over €9,000 at the current exchange rate).
The officers thus detained the woman, as the law states that it is prohibited try to evade customs hiding something, disguising yourself, or making false statements for «transport, conduct or ship goods that are prohibited or limited with respect to entry or exit into the State”.
China already has a complicated relationship – to put it mildly, given that they are considered the “opium of the spirit” – with video games (only recently has there been some openness), but in this case introducing cartridges into the country without declaring them (and therefore without paying) to avoid customs taxes should be the real legal point of the issue.
The woman could eventually get away with a fine equal to up to three times the value of the taxes he had tried to evade. And all those games, we imagine, will have ended up seized.
