Posted on 08/12/2006 6:22:28 PM PDT by PghBaldy
A man from the Republic of Georgia is being held in the Westmoreland County Prison on a federal detainer after he and another foreigner were found in Murrysville with 15 prepaid cell phones and $4,200 in cash, police said. Malkhaz Zakutashvili, 53, was held through the federal Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement, Murrysville police Sgt. Charles Tappe said.
The federal agency told police not to hold the second man, Zurabi Maisuradze, 25, who is also of the Republic of Georgia, Tappe said.
(Excerpt) Read more at pittsburghlive.com ...
Do you have that forum link handy? (the one where store clerks were posting about all the pay as you go cell phone sales they have been doing since around March of this year?)
Thanks for the links.
This one?
"POLICE PULL OVER IMMIGRANTS, FIND CASH, CELL PHONES"
Thanks TexKat!
Cindy you might want to note this link also...
http://www.youareworthmore.org/node/21435
Here is another one...
http://www.mariettatimes.com/news/story/new22_810200682028.asp
Pre-paid phones favored by criminals, terrorists (lots of info here)
In one New Year's Eve transaction at a Target store in Hemet, Calif., 150 disposable tracfones were purchased. Suspicious store employees notified police, who called in the FBI, law enforcement sources said.
In an earlier incident, at a Wal-Mart store in Midland, Texas, on Dec. 18, six individuals attempted to buy about 60 of the phones until store clerks became suspicious and notified the police. A Wal-Mart spokesperson confirmed the incident.
The Midland police report, dated Dec. 18 and obtained by ABC News, states: "Information obtained by MPD [Midland Police Department] dispatch personnel indicated that approximately six individuals of Middle-Eastern origin were attempting to purchase an unusually large quantity of tracfones (disposable cell phones with prepaid minutes attached)." At least one of the suspects was identified as being from Iraq and another from Pakistan, officials said.
I distinctly remember reading about this type of thing at least once in the last few years - I try to devour all the WoT news I can, but its hard to search for news on the web... I would not be surprised if it happens s heck of a lot, and many people are ashamed of appearing "racist" so don't call the cops.
"the one where store clerks were posting about all the pay as you go cell phone sales they have been doing since around March of this year?"
Blame the New York Times.
I think these groups are using the sim cards from the TracPhones so they can place calls from their regular phones without being traced. Just change them every time you need to make a call.
The timing of this fits the release of the information about our warrrantless surveilance programs.
Idiots.
Odd thing about this cellphone epidemic - the would-be perps of the UK plot planned to use disposable cameras.
Cell phones haven't been mentioned, except that they're forbidden as carry-ons for plane passengers now.
Thank you Cindy
I was at a party this evening and talked to a guy who is in the intelligence area. I asked him about the cell phones. He said they can take the sim card (or something like that)out and use it in their personal phone for some calls and then discard it. Still not traceable.
That might explain the discarding of batteries and chargers.
Has anyone figured out why they'd need so many cellphones? I don't know anything about explosives, but it only takes one phone to detonate an explosive, right? Sounds like many phones=many targets.
Maybe I read about the cases from 2005-early 2006, but ugh. It's August, and they've been buying since 2005 (at least). Not good.
Those caught purchasing more than two cell phones and discarding all but bomb detonating contents ought, upon being discovered, be shot dead, then disembowled with their remains mixed in pig fat. Period. No more games. No more 911s.
"We the people."
Yeah...and they let him off with a few of those cell phones to take with him......
Check this out...
http://72.14.203.104/search?q=cache:P60r2Tu47y4J:www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0001MLAGA+tracfone+sim+card&hl=en&gl=us&ct=clnk&cd=3
They don't understand their own product., April 30, 2006
Reviewer: Robert M "Robert" (Middleton Wisc USA) - See all my reviews
I have a pile of GSM phones laying around and thought I'd just give one to my son and buy a tracfone SIM card, stick it into the phone and activate it. So first I call tracfone and asked how much for a SIM card, they didn't want to sell me one, they even sugested I buy one of their phones and take the SIM card out of it. I said that's stupid there are close to a billion SIM cards in circulation we're not inventing something new here. Anyway I neverr quite got the answer so I turned to Ebay. I bought an unactivated SIM card, stucj it in my phone.
Go to the website, no SIM only activation, gotta call them. Ok call them and now they want to know all about the phone, after explaining to them that it's m phone and thier SIM card I go through three or four service people, a half an hour later they say it will be activated, just wait, two days later the SIM is still not activated. After calling customer service AGAIN, they say it is now activated. Finally, almost a day later it became activated.
What kind of phone company is this. I've bought SIM cards in the market in New Delhi and it's been activated on the spot, how come these folks supposedly in the developed world can't do the same?
I would not assume all are for bombs here - some countries may take down info - I think Switz does, so no anonymous buying of phones... Some could be used for one time communicating, OR, they're planning something really big. That I'm sure of, just don't know if this is it, or they are part of the global jihad, some for overseas?
If they are prepaid cell phones, maybe they can make calls that are not traceable, at least not on this end. They can call their middle eastern puppet master mullahs, get instructions, and not be busted.
The federal auhtorities should require mobile network operators to ask for valid ID from buyers to purchase prepaid cell phones. We do this in Colombia.
I don't think they are solely after the SIM cards - they can be bought cheap on ebay for unactivated ones. Someone is selling 2000 of them for $399.99 (and they have 25 lots of 2000 in each lot for the buy it now price of $399.99)
http://cgi.ebay.com/Brand-NEW-Unused-Non-Activated-TRACFONE-SIM-CARD-2K-LOT_W0QQitemZ320014779059QQihZ011QQcategoryZ48501QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
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