A secret factory in China has been counterfeiting Apple products on a massive scale.
Beijing police revealed Sunday they had busted the facility, which had been producing thousands of fake smartphones for export.
The factory, which has not been named, was led by a married couple who ran it under the guise of a gadget maintenance shop, the Wall Street Journal reported.
In fact, it produced more than 41,000 counterfeit iPhones and accessories worth up to 120 million yuan (over $19 million).
The man, surnamed Yu, and his wife, surnamed Xie, had hired hundreds of workers for six assembly lines, the Journal reported. The fake phones were constructed from secondhand smartphone parts and counterfeit products from the country's industrial center Shenzhen. They were then sent overseas to countries including the United States.
Following a tip-off from U.S. law enforcement, nine people have now been arrested.
The appetite for Apple products in China is significant, with revenue doubling year-over-year to $13.2 billion, according to the company's July earnings report. Apple has been increasingly keen to serve the market by, for example, introducing more gold into its range to satisfy Chinese colour preferences.
Investors are increasingly concerned about the health of China's economy -- a fact not helped by Monday's stock market crash in Shanghai. Apple's CEO Tim Cook has expressed some reservations about the state of China.
If the number of fakes are any indication of the market opportunity, however, Apple can rest easy. Tens of thousands of counterfeit iPhones aside, there were knockoff Apple Watches available before the smartwatch even officially launched in April this year.