Posted on 08/17/2006 6:24:37 PM PDT by SandRat
HUACHUCA CITY — Unusually large purchases of cellular phones at a Huachuca City store on April 21 and a Tucson area store last weekend may be part of the growing trend in the United States.
The Arizona Counter-Terrorism Information Center on Tuesday issued a statement that said recent information shows a possible increase in suspicious pre-paid cell phone purchases nationwide. “There has been speculation in the national and international media of cell phones being used to detonate explosives by members of terrorist, extremist and separatist groups around the world,” the agency said in its statement. “It is also possible for terrorists to obtain funding through the re-sale of these phones to foreign markets.”
Reports of large numbers of cell phones purchased have occurred this month in Caro, Mich.; and Midland, Texas. Suspicious parties in those instances were of Middle Eastern descent.
Another incident under suspicion occurred on April 21 in Huachuca City. At 3:30 p.m., town police responded to the Dollar General Store on Highway 90 to a report of suspicious activity regarding two men purchasing more than 300 Tracfone-brand cell phones.
According to the Huachuca City dispatch records, two California men were traveling in a black 2001 Ford Explorer.
The vehicle contained about another 700 such cell phones in addition to those that were purchased at the Huachuca City Dollar General Store, Police Chief Dennis Grey said.
Police released the men after asking a number of questions. Officers, Grey said, had nothing to charge the men with because no pre-existing state law prohibits the purchase of large numbers of telephones.
Huachuca City police referred the investigation to U.S. Immigration and Customs, which in turn forwarded the information to the FBI, Grey said. Sierra Vista’s FBI office indicated nothing illegal had taken place, “and they didn’t even bother to come out,” he added.
A spokeswoman for the FBI office in Phoenix did not immediately return telephone calls Wednesday afternoon.
Local FBI personnel did take possession of the discarded phone wrappers and chargers, which apparently were of no use to the people purchasing them for alleged resale, Grey said.
The vehicle in which the men and the cell phones were observed was registered to a California woman, according to the public dispatch record. The woman to whom the vehicle is registered was not questioned nor seen by Huachuca City authorities, though they believed she was purchasing cell phones locally as well, Grey said.
The men told city police they planned to resell the approximately 1,000 cell phones for a profit of about $5 apiece.
Wireless telephones “could be used to detonate a bomb, or they could be used to make a bomb,” Grey said.
“That’s just speculation, though,” he said.
Cell phones also use lithium batteries, and lithium is part of the recipe for producing methamphetamine, the police chief noted.
According the state terrorism information center, cell phones have been utilized to detonate explosives in terrorist attacks around the world. However, the quantities of cell phones that are being purchased are overwhelming when compared to the actual number used in terrorist attacks, the agency added.
“Likewise, proceeds from any types of large-scale sales could be used to finance terrorist operation,” the agency said. “However, the use of the proceeds from the resale of cell phones has not been linked to the financing of terrorist operations.”
Grey said he discussed this large quantity cell phone purchase with the police chief of Caro, Mich., who told Grey the U.S. Attorney’s Office is prosecuting a similar local case under Michigan statute.
Last weekend, a suspicious cell phone shopping spree took place in Tucson.
A concerned caller told the Tucson police dispatch that two men apparently of Middle Eastern descent purchased an unusual amount of cell phones at the Sam’s Club in the 4600 block of North Stone, said Tucson police Sgt. Decio Hopffer.
While there are no laws in Arizona regarding the purchase of large numbers of cell phones, “given the current state of things in the United States, we look at these things seriously,” Hopffer said.
Tucson police also forwarded this case to the FBI, Hopffer said. Tucson police also are reportedly looking for the two men.
herald/review reporter Gentry Braswell can be reached at 515-4680 or by e-mail at gentry.braswell@svherald.com.
This paragraph is 100% wrong...There is no speculation...It's a known fact that cell phones are used to detonate IEDs in Iraq...
Terrorist, extremeist and separist groups??? Nonsense...The only groups using the cell phones to blow people up are Arabs...And presumably, they are muzlims...
These terrorists aren't going to make any money reselling wal-mart phones...They going to blow people up with them...
I predict by next year you will have to have valid ID in order to buy a prepaid cellphone or prepaid cellphone time, with the cashier being required to activate the phone for you and take your personal information.
Can't you see it, people? You now have to show valid ID to purchase cold medications which COULD be used to make meth. Eventually, you will have to have valid ID for ALL purchases. By requiring valid ID for cold medications, they are slowly, gradually conditioning us into a future where you will have to have valid ID to buy ANYTHING. Sounds like the first steps to conditioning the people to accept the mark of the beast.
I'll bet you anything these people are buying them to be used as detonators in some future war with the infidel , right here at home. If we let them get away with this , right under our noses , we are the ones that are insane. Stop it tomorrow.
1 phone per customer limit .
The Federal Government should require these cellular telephone providers to provide the name of anyone who purchases more than three telephones.They should also be required to provide the electronic serial number so these phones can be tracked to determine when they"re being used.
Some civil rights types will not like it but you have No civil rights when your dead.
If the feds do not protect us, we have the Constitutional authority to protect ourselves.
The Second Amendment guarantees our rights to protect families and ourselves from tyrants - foreign or domenstic - and from our enmies who would kill us at their first chance.
Be sure to keep your ammo stored in LARD to keep down corrosion (of course) and let everyone know that you do.
Yougottabekiddingme. The feebs even took out the trash for them??? [expletive deleted]256
Why can't someone dial them up and see what goes boom?
No maybes about it! That law should be on the books right now.
Amazed the reporter actually wrote "Middle Eastern descent" and it got past the editor. One would think to save $5, the customer could stop by the dollar store and pick a phone up himself. If there was this much of a market for cell phones it wouldn't be just this one group. Of course this has nothing to do with use the phone once and throw it away so as not to be detected by Homeland Security. But is is getting curiouser and curiouser.
Verifying ID or more gov't regulation will only hurt lower income folks who need a cell phone but can't get one due to bad or no credit. Let the stores make the decision on who should buy how many phones instead of asking the gubmint to hold people's hands.
I don't care what they do about Sudafed, and allergy meds, and regulations. I do, care, however, about Arabs buying cell phones.
On WRKO talk show Howie Carr heard woman who claimed to work at Ft Devens (old MA military installation) say that lithium ion batteries in large quantities represent some sort of toxic threat. Can anyone confirm this? Recall account of cell phone buyers that were separating phones from batteries. If for resale, why would one separate the batteries?
The article missed the whole point of these purchases. These guys are not primarily using them as detonators. Nor are they buying them for the lithium batteries (they could just buy lithium batteries).
Very simply, they want to make phone calls that are not connected to other phone calls because they consider the fed surveillance program to be effective. If the Feds check on who Ahmed calls after talking to Baki, it would be much harder if Ahmed uses a different phone for each call. Indeed, it would be that much harder to find Ahmed in the first place.
Also, I happen to own a TracFone and I certainly would NOT buy one without a charger, after all, what good is it (or any other cell phone), if you cannot charge it.
Are these LEA brain dead or have they been so PC-whipped that they cannot see the obvious?
Sickening.
That's a great idea. For preemption, the phone company should ping pre-paid phones about once an hour at random intervals just in case they have been connected to bombs. This would substantially increase the risk to bomb-makers.
Is it possible that they may be aware of some future event that will make these phones in great demand?
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