Chinese company busted for mass-producing fake Apple iPhones

A customer holds an iPhone 6 (R) and iPhone 6 Plus at the Apple store on Fifth Avenue after the phones went on sale in New York in this file photo taken September 19, 2014. [Photo/Agencies]

BEIJING - Chinese police have cracked down a Beijing-based company which allegedly made more than 40,000 fake iPhones worth about 120 million yuan ($19.6 million) this year, they announced Saturday.

Beijing police said they arrested nine suspects and found six assembly lines and more than one million cell phone parts in the company's factory.

The police started to investigate the company in May after fake China-made cell phones were seized in the United States.

The police said the company bought old phone mainboards from foreign countries and fake parts with logos from the city of Shenzhen.

The company hired hundreds of workers who assembled the parts and then sold the fake phones to other countries.

The police did not disclose the name of the company.