The key facts

  • 20 iPhones with fake IMEI codes worth 310 million soums were detained at Tashkent Airport.
  • Passengers reflashed the devices to declare codes from previously imported phones in their declarations.
  • Customs checks continue as the agency looks for similar cases of control evasion.

Preventing the import of iPhones with swapped IMEI codes

At Tashkent International Airport, customs services stopped an attempt to import 20 iPhone smartphones, valued at nearly 310 million soums. The violation was detected during a passenger inspection, as the travelers tried to bypass controls by declaring IMEI codes that did not match the actual devices. According to the press service of the State Customs Committee, the passengers used software methods to reflash the phones so that one identifier appeared in the settings, while a different one — previously registered in the country — showed up when checked via a USSD request.

How the scheme worked and the current status

The essence of the scheme was that the violators assigned IMEI codes from phones imported earlier to the new devices, which formally allowed them to meet the personal-use declaration requirements. Customs officers discovered a discrepancy between the data in the software and the actual identifier read via a system request. Checks into the detained cases are ongoing, and the agency reports that measures are being taken to identify similar cases of illegal import of devices.