China has brought down a massive iPhone counterfeiting operation

Apple’s iPhones are a big business in China. So big that an alleged supplier of knock-off iPhones in the country produced at least 40,000 units, before local police shut down the massive operation. Beijing authorities have arrested nine suspects, and confiscated over 1,400 fake handsets of different brands, as part of an investigation into the supplier, the city’s police force announced on Sunday. The supplier, based in Beijing, allegedly established one of the largest knock-off phone operations found in recent years, according to the police. Since January, the supplier produced over 41,000 fake iPhones, along with 66,000 smartphone circuit boards, for a value of over $19.7 million. In addition to smartphones, the supplier had also manufactured over a million imitation handset accessory units.