Customs seize fake iPhone cables in Alaska

Customs inspectors in Alaska, US, have seized and will destroy around 12,000 counterfeit cables and adaptors purporting to be genuine Apple products.

The cables and adaptors for the iPhone 5 and other Apple products - worth an estimated $636,000 at retail prices - were manufactured in China and stamped with copies of the company's logo, according to an Associated Press report. They were packaged in cardboard blister packs rather than Apple's trademark white packaging.

The cables were copies of Apple's Lightning to USB cables - used in its newest products - and were discovered at a FedEx sorting facility in Anchorage en route to a US wholesaler.

In 2011, US Customs and Border Protection (CBP) made 25,000 counterfeit or pirated good seizures, and consumer electronics accounted for 22 per cent of the total.