The worldwide chip shortage has CPUs in such high demand that people are actually strapping them to their bodies in order to smuggle them over borders. What used to be the purview of drugs and illicit goods has now been passed on to high-tech electronics.
We begin our journey courtesy of the Chinese-language news site HKEPC (via Kotaku) with a story about a truck driver trying to cross the Hong Kong–Zhuhai–Macau Bridge, which connects Hong Kong with mainland China. Hong Kong customs thought that the driver looked a little "nervous" so they stopped the truck and searched the driver. What they found was 256 Intel CPUs taped to the driver's legs and torso.
And these Intel chips were the good stuff–we're talking i7-10700 and i9-10900 Ks. In these silicon scarce times, each of those chips could sell for thousands on the secondary market, which is a huge incentive for humble drivers to try something like this.
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On the same day (June 16), another truck was stopped and searched revealing a hidden compartment with 52 CPUs inside. A June 18 "anti-smuggling operation" resulted in the seizure of $27 million in "electronic products" including CPUs, but only after a Miami Vice-style high-speed boat chase.
Most recently, a July 5 bust by Hong Kong Customs netted 2,200 CPUs and 1,000 RAM sticks, along with phones and cosmetic items, totaling $4 million.
For those wondering how drugs were replaced with silicon wafers, the global semiconductor shortage brought on by the COVID pandemic is a big reason why you can't buy a PS5 and probably won't be able to until 2022. Chip manufacturers just don't have the raw material to meet demand and it's causing shortages of everything from video game consoles to luxury automobiles.
PC hardware like CPUs and graphics cards are also hit hard by the shortage, although it seems like the recent crash in cryptocurrency is at least helping a bit.
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