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 Vistas FBI office indicated nothing illegal had taken place, and they didnt 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.
Thats 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. Attorneys 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 Sams 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.
"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."
I don't hardly think they are planning on using thousands fo them to set off bombs. They don't have that many bombs. So it is kind of absurb to even make the connection.
The way the left thinks it is better to be dead than rude.
"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."
Bingo! and they only need one to set off a bomb. They can get that from anywhere. They can even steal one.
To add to the ball bearings and scrap metal in huge fertilizer bombs......a few hundred small lithium ion batteries will just add to the havoc.
I have one of these Tracfones myself, (and they are a great deal for the occasional user like myself) but I am at a loss to understand what is going on here. Like everyone here there are all manner of theories. There is no shortage of these phones no matter what the perps say. Something is up and the Homeland Security had better get on this and put a stop to it. Personally, I think these should be reregistered before they can be used. All pertinent data would have to be verified before they would be usable. It would be an inconvience but something has to be done to put a stop to this and NOW!
There might be something to "unlocking" these phones but I still can't see how it would be profitable. Does anyone have any insight on this? They are also available on ebay.
Maybe they'll just ban cell phones entirely. (Is it true that only drug dealers and pimps need them?) Cell phones are at least as annoying as smoking.
Perhaps the same rules could be applied to people buying fatty foods, like sausages.
Well slap me upside the head, perhaps they're not as dumb as I thought. Blam, you got me.
Yup. I went to buy one the other day for just absolute emergencies and discovered that the 'minutes' expire every 60 days...I didn't know that. With that knowledge, I asked myself, what will they do with the phones after 60 days?
What they are doing is fiddling with the insides so that the phones may be used with other providers. The Dallas Morning News had a long article about it this morning. It seems to be a common practice.
The phones are sold at a loss so as to sell additional minutes later.
N Texans Arraigned On Federal Charges In Cell Phone Case
...The federal complaint contains no mention of terrorism. It alleges that the three men defrauded consumers, TracFone Wireless Inc. and Nokia Corp.
Miami, Fla.-based TracFone sells prepaid cellular phones with a limited number of minutes at subsidized prices. It makes money when buyers of those phones purchase additional minutes from the company.
The government alleges the men are part of a scheme to buy up phones that Nokia makes for TracFone and then remove TracFone's proprietary software, making it possible to use the handsets with any cellular provider.
By altering the phones, they're no longer genuine Nokia products even though the appear like them.
The complaint said TracFone estimates that more than 800,000 of its telephones have been "fraudulently converted."
People involved in the trade of so-called "unlocked" cell phones maintain that it is legal.
Consumer advocates say locking the phones in the first place is illegal and there haven't been any court rulings about the legality of removing the phones' software...
Ding ding ding! They're likely unlocking them so they'll work on other networks (overseas I'd presume based on the charger throwaways). Tracphone sells them under cost as a loss-leader to gain access to recharge income. The "terrorists" are taking them out of packages to avoid import duties and shipping them out. The only logical reason why 1000's of them are being moved.
Tracphone has actually been working since early in the year to prosecute the practitioners of unlocking their phones through fraud laws. The folks that are trafficking the phones know this, hence their cover stories lacking total detail.
For Tracphone, the hysteria over cell phone terror is likely viewed as a PR program from heaven. Citizens will defend their business model out of patriotism.
Not to say that other uses are to be ruled out entirely, but in my opinion these "terrorists" are more guilty of being good capitalists than anything else.
How long until Tracphone adopts the hardware "lease" vs. sale model used by the sat guys like DirecTv to better combat "unlockers?"
Why go through the hassle of buying them in the USA? You can buy unlimited quantities of cellphones in Thailand (in spite of announced regulations last year that would require ID) and probably many, many other countries.
But why are they throwing away the charger???
This is where they live and probably where they will be used?
I got it. 220V countries. If they were going to sell them in 120V countries they would only need a plug adapter. So where are the 220V countries?
Not throwing away, unbundling; selling as an accessory.
Looks like all of the world except US, Japan and a few others.
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