Apparently in China they have gotten fed up with waiting around on Apple to finally release the iPhone to them. After the iPhones leave the Chinese factory and get shipped off smugglers are snagging them and bringing them right back to China.

The smugglers are getting paid $30 per iPhone delivered. This is being done by Chinese tourists as well as flight attendants. Once there to add and unlock the Chinese language software costs the buyer about $25.

The handsets themselves range from $400-$600. Which happens to be the same or cheaper than the official 8GB iPhone in Europe.

[via wired]