Truck Driver Found Smuggling Hundreds Of CPUs Strapped To His Body

When you think of smugglers, you likely think of drug barons, or shady criminal cartels moving money or people. Heck, you might even think of some intergalactic ragamuffins with walking carpets for co-pilots. What you might not immediately think of, are truck drivers with CPU chips.

On June 16th, one such driver was caught by customs officials at the Hong Kong - Zhuhai - Macau Bridge (I'm sure we've all been there) whose suspicions were aroused because the unlucky techno-mule who "was acting abnormally and looking nervous". Now, I'm no criminal, but I'd imagine the first rule of smuggling club is 'don't look nervous'. The second rule is probably don't talk about smuggling club.

Speaking of technology, it sure does make games look great doesn't it? Not least this newly announced 8k resolution remaster of Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. Check out the fan-made project below:

As originally reported by Chinese-language site HKEPC (and picked up in English by Kotaku) the driver, when asked to step out of the vehicle and searched, had hundreds of CPU chips strapped to his legs and ribs. 256 of the little blighters, to be exact - a mix of Intel Core i7-10700s and i9-10900Ks. The report reckons that the street value of these chips is about 800,000 Chinese Yuan, or almost £90,000 to you and me.

Another smaller sting operation apparently also seized a further 52 CPUs in a case by the same customs officers. This time, a truck was showing odd images on the 'system' (possibly some kind of thermal imaging device?) which prompted a search of the driver's cabin. The CPUs were found stashed in a compartment between the driver and passengers seats.

It seems like the black market for technology is thriving at the moment, with criminals keen to capitalise on the global shortage of chips and graphics cards, and desperate punters are willing to pay over the odds for the kit. Whether they're being used in huge cryptocurrency mining operations, or being ferried about by people in speed boats, let's hope the practice is short-lived as the world begins to open back up.

Topics: News