A favorite route among smugglers is pushing cargo from Hong Kong en route to mainland China to avoid sales tax, which is 0% compared to up to 15% on the mainline. This generous markup has seen plenty of ingenious attempts to try and get tech from Hong Kong into the mainland. Case in point, a group of smugglers was recently caught attempting to deliver "high value computer display cards" by hiding them in a cargo full of live lobsters.

According to the official report, as many as 70 Nvidia Quadro K2200 cards were caught being shipped alongside a 617-pound cargo of approximately 200 live lobsters.

Hong Kong Customs apprehended the van, which carried no paperwork. The authorities estimate that the total value of the items are around HK$600,000 or $76,500, but it isn't clear if this is the price for just the live lobsters or the graphics cards or both.

You'd be hard-pressed to call the Nvidia Quadro K2200 top-of-the-line or "high value". These cards, which were released in 2014, and are considered entry-level on the market today and that's if we're being generous. But, they do have their use, in particular, their 68W-TDP and compact single-slot design means that they don't take much power and require only a single PCIe slot.

The said cards sell for roughly around $159 each on today's market, which would make the total cost of the haul $11,130 if we account exclusively for the GPUs alone, but the used market price is probably significantly lower. 

Fun fact: live lobsters weren't always considered a delicacy. These days, a pound of fresh and live lobster can cost anywhere from around $8 to $19 at grocery stores. But, many years ago, it was seen as prisoner food and most people wouldn't dare eat them.

Speaking of Nvidia, the tech giant recently voiced its support for the Activision Blizzard buyout by Microsoft after the UK's CMA blocked it.