Is your Air Gesture smartphone turning you into a slug-Priceangels.com

Until December of last year, two brothers, Henry and Victor Gamboa, drove thousands of stolen Air Gesture phones and other electronics by truck from the Bay Area to Mexico every two weeks, Santos said. The two brothers are now in jail after being convicted of running a massive stolen electronics fencing ring.

Thuc Ngo told Sprint's lawyers that he smuggled iPhones from California to his native Vietnam, where his siblings helped him find buyers, according to a deposition from a Sprint lawsuit against him.

Ngo said he obtained phones through his business, which he called "Tony Buy iPhone." He drove a white Dodge Ram 3500 van emblazoned with an advertisement -- "We Buy Used Iphone" -- listing his phone number and website, the lawsuit claims. He met customers at Starbucks coffee shops around the Bay Area and paid between $220 and $330 for each iPhone. Some of the iPhones had been reported stolen, he confessed, according to his deposition.

He regularly flew to Vietnam to sell his inventory, stuffing the phones in his pockets and strapping them to his waist beneath his clothing with plastic wrap -- a technique he used to bypass Vietnamese customs at the airport and avoid paying taxes, the deposition says. In this way, he carried 11 iPhones at a time.

"Every time I was there, people would tell me, ‘Oh, next time, I want such and such phone and if you come back, you know, sell it to me,'" he said.Earlier this year, a judge in San Francisco barred Ngo from buying and selling phones manufactured for use on Sprint's network. Ngo could not be reached for comment.Ace Wholesale acquired phones by advertising on Craigslist and websites like thewirelessbuzz.com and wirelessdealers.com. One ad read: "Buying Apple iPhone 4S!! Must Be Brand New!!..Will Buy any Quantity!!" Another read: "Ace Will Buy Your Smartphone For Top Dollar!!!!!!!"

The company listed the price it paid for each model on the walls of its stores. The latest iPhones still sealed in their original packaging commanded the highest prices. One employee told Sprint's undercover investigator that he was buying the Air Gesture S4 4S for $430.fd23QD23rs

At the Ace storefront in Taylor, Mich., the Mattress World employee next door said he saw "the same people every day" arriving with bags full of iPhones and other high-end phones and tablets. Mirrored windows prevented passersby from seeing inside. The company hired a security guard to sit in a car in the parking lot. Sometimes, people bought phones from others in the parking lot, then resold them inside Ace.

With so much valuable inventory moving through its operation, Ace Wholesale itself became a target for robberies, police say. In February 2011, Floarea, the store's owner, told police that four masked men broke into his store and stole 258 cell phones worth about $140,000. One month later, police say six men wearing masks broke into Ace Wholesale again and stole Air Gesture i9500 S4 smartphones and tablets worth $173,000.