Russia seizes illegal iPads

Loyal readers will remember that a Russian man was among the first ever buyers of Apple’s iPad 2, flying to New York from Moscow to buy two iPads with the intention of selling them for four times the price back home. Looks like some of his followers took it a bit too far.

Russia’s customs service said it has arrested several passengers on a Washington DC-Moscow flight for failing to declare around $16,000 worth of Apple goods: a total of 18 iPad 2s, iPhones and MacBooks. A similar incident happened in mid-March, when 20 undeclared Apple products were seized.

iPads are still not officially on sale in Russia and the start sale date remains unknown. You can find them on sale through Russian websites for around $1,700 – nearly four times the official price.