Authorities dismantle clandestine iPhone factory in Maputo City

Denounciation by a citizen  led to the discovery and dismantling of an iPHONE "mobile phone factory" in Maputo, Mozambique.

The factory was run from a private apartment by two Chinese nationals.

According to Gimo Jone, the head of Customs in Maputo, mobile phones were launched into the national market without a license from the National Institute of Communications of Mozambique (INCM).

Actually, this is a factory; it's an apartment, but it functions like a factory. Mobile phones are assembled here for sale in the Alto-Maè area.

All of these mobile phones were brought into the country without the INCM license, let alone the customs declaration. As a result, it is smuggling in addition to  the other crime as there is no legal paperwork for the importation and placement of mobile phones on the market," he added.

More than a thousand iPHONE mobile phones and different materials used to counterfeit IMEIs, or mobile phone identification numbers, were seized as a part of the three-week investigation.

The factory's owners are of Chinese origin and, when confronted, refute the allegations:

– Do you confirm that you posses all the necessary documents?

– Yes, I have everything, and we have already confirmed that t. So what they is wrong and illegal .

– You operated as a factory. Where are your documents?

– We have everything and they seized all. I'm very angry, I won't say anything else - stated one of the proprieteries of the "factory".

All that was impounded, according to the Mozambican Customs, will be submitted to the Attorney General's Office for subsequent actions, while the two alleged counterfeiters face the legal consequences.

The multisectoral team that dismantled the factory was made up of the Police of the Republic of Mozambique, the National Criminal Investigation Service, the National Institute of Communications of Mozambique, the National Inspectorate of Economic Activities and Customs of Mozambique.