However, if you're going to invest that much money in buying that many of them, you're going to have some kind of plan for how you're going to sell off the parts. They are either going to have to have a waiting customer for parts in bulk, or have a plan for moving those parts to lots of customers quickly, and have probably already done it before in lower volumes.
Unlocking the phones means they aren't locked to that network anymore, however they would have to be reprogrammed to work on a different network. That violates the licensing agreements for both networks and likely breaks a number of laws as well.
Once again, they will also need to have a market for 1000+ illegally reprogrammed phones in a rather short time, otherwise they wouldn't be buying so many at once.
It's quite possible that there is no direct terrorism connection, though there may be an indirect connection if they are selling the phones for parts.
However, considering the number of phones involved, these guys were up to something on a pretty large scale that is likely going to land them in jail and civil court even though the terrorism related charges have been dropped.
You mean you wouldn't invest $20,000 today (1,000 phones times $20) to get back $40,000+ over the next 2 years? To me, that is a 50% return / year. Get that kind of interest rate in a bank.
A friend buys 1,000 tv antennas at a time from China and gets a terrific discount. He sells them on Ebay, 1 or 2 a day and gets triple what he pays.
Another person buys left over summer clothes on the clearance rack at the gap etc.. she waits till next spring and sells them for 100% markup.