iPhone 6 Leakbusters: First Arrest Made In China

At least one arrest has been made in China over leaks of the iPhone 6 made earlier this year. This is the first in what we expect will be a line of lockdowns on the seemingly free-flowing sales of illicit materials in the country – namely pre-release Apple parts.

Over the past few years, Apple has suffered several high-profile leaks of iPhone and iPad parts. Due to the profit that can be made from sharing such parts on the internet, employees of manufacturing plants like Foxconn have been encouraged to break the law.

According to Chinese publication Taihang Daily, one Foxconn worker has been detained with suspicion of theft. This fellow who has been identified with surname (or code-name) Qiao, is suspected of stealing a single iPhone 6 shell back on July 24th, 2014.

He's also suspected to have stolen another 5 shells over the next several weeks, selling them all to a single buyer. This buyer quite likely sold them to leaksters around the world or to accessory makers hoping to get in on the accurate case-making business as soon as possible.

Before the iPhone 4 and 4s, the leaking of images of Apple products was essentially unheard of. In the past several years, we've gotten fairly accurate looks at products like the iPad Air, iPhone 5, and iPhone 6 well before release.

Now that one suspect is in custody, we must suspect the rest of this stack of cards will fall. Sooner or later.