Supposedly they were going to sell the phones to someone in Dearborn - in which case, coming home to Texas through Michigan would be right on the way.
I still don't buy the phone reselling story. Even assuming it's true as far as it goes, what was that person going to be doing with the phones? Supposedly he was going to buy them for $38 each after those 3 had bought them from Wal-Mart for $20 - clearly there would be no reasonable expectation for that person to sell them yet again and make any kind of profit.
My bet is that if in fact they were going to be selling the phones in Dearborn, the person who was buying them was planning to use them for some kind of illegal purpose - terrorism or drugs, most likely. It's barely possible that the 3 individuals weren't aware of the ultimate purpose of the phones, but that just puts the question off one level.
There must be a few different accounts of the story. I've been following the story very closely and read in a few places that they were going to sell them in Texas. I didn't know they were planning on making a Dearborn connection first. Thanks for the info.