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Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1831130/posts

Terrorism Born Here On The South Plains?
KCBD News Channel 11 ^ | 9 May 2007 | Staff

Posted on 05/09/2007 9:19:42 PM PDT by Army Air Corps

A bulk purchase of disposable cell phones across The South Plains is turning into a federal investigation. Muleshoe authorities have questioned a man, who according to police reports, confesses to buying 60 pre-paid cell phones that might later be used to detonate bombs in the Middle East.

The man reportedly bought the phones from stores like Dollar General, Family Dollar and even Wal-mart’s across the region. Lubbock is included in the towns he confessed to buying the phones in. Again, in police reports he admits to a store manager the cell phones would eventually be used as bomb detonators in Iraq.

There are still plenty of unanswered questions. Questions we will continue to ask in the days and weeks to come. But what we do know is that a man of middle eastern descent who lives in San Antonio was questioned by Muleshoe police a week ago this past Monday. This after he tried to buy more cell phones than allowed by dollar general store policy.

“They had a gentleman trying to buy multiple phones and they’ve had some training from homeland security about multiple purchases and that if somebody were to try and buy more than the 2 phones allotted to notify law enforcement immediately,” said Chief Brian Frieda of the Muleshoe Police.

Dollar General did just that, call the Muleshoe Police.

Frieda said, “He eluded to the fact that he had 60 plus phones that he had obtained over the course of about a 3 day period.”

Police Surveillance Video:

(Police)”so how many phones do you have in your car?”
(Man) “60.”
(Police) “60?”
(Man) “yes. I got some of them from...”
(Police) “Odessa, San Angelo, Midland, Lubbock...”
(Man) “...Muleshoe... Each town I got like 15.”

He says he bought the phones to sell them to a man in Dallas named Jalel. He goes on to say, depending on the phone and the provider he makes between $3 and $8 per phone.

Police Surveillance Video:

(Police) “What is the purpose for buying so many Tracfones?”
(Man) “For business to sell it. Buy and sell.”

Once he deliver’s the phones to Dallas, the man who buys them reportedly takes them apart.

Police Surveillance Video:

(Man) “He cut the battery. He cut the phone and put the phone here, the battery here and throws the charger.”
(Police) “Throws the chargers away?”
(Man) “Mm hmm.”

The man claims this isn’t the first time this man has been questioned by police. Also telling officers his contacts in Dallas told him how to deal with authorities when questioned.

He said, “Sometime when I go out in San Antonio the police, they stop me or they follow me and ask what this for, what this for and he tell me don’t worry about it. Don’t worry about it, just go and buy.”

In police reports, the manager of Dollar General says: graphic:

Dollar General, Family Dollar and Alco all have an agreement that if anyone purchases two Tracfones or try’s to purchases more than two Tracfones the store employees call the other stores.

Frieda added, “There are no laws prohibiting the person to buy 1 phone, 20 phones are a hundred phones for a period of time.”

The man in that police video has obtained resident alien status in the State of Texas and at this point, his whereabouts are unknown to the authorities we talked to.

(Note: As an aside, let’s run the keyword Georgia — looking to see if there’s any articles of interest regarding Georgia — as in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia.)

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/keyword?k=georgia
(http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1853295/posts )

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THANKS to Kyla Starr for the ping to these posts:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1843491/posts?page=1081#1081

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1855080/posts

Excerpt below is from the external link on the FR thread:

Russians with 105 pre-paid cell phones draw attention of police

>>Charges filed in Monterey; Homeland Security contacted

Two Russians arrested in Monterey last week in possession of 105 pre-paid cell phones may have been the same pair who attempted to purchase the inventory of cell phones at a Crossville business earlier in the month.

Stanislav Legkunets, 19, of Belleville, MI, and Konstantine Mkbitarian, 47, of Romulus, MI, were taken into custody by Monterey Police after an incident at the local Family Dollar Store on E. Commercial Ave. in Monterey. The two told authorities they are natives of the former Soviet republic of Georgia.

According to receipts found inside the vehicle, the 105 cell phones had been purchased at various locations in Kentucky and Tennessee. In addition to the phones, police also found a Dell laptop computer and $6,000 in cash.

The TBI and city detectives were notified of the local incident.

So far, there has been no response or comment from Homeland Security officials.<<

1,081 posted on 06/23/2007 10:43:32 AM PDT by KylaStarr

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1843491/posts?page=1084#1084

To clarify my above post...

The Monterey mentioned in the news article is Monterey Tennessee. Monterey TN is located about halfway between Nashville and Knoxville.

Seems to me there’s been other activity down in this area of TN but I can’t recall if any of it was related to these cell phones.

1,084 posted on 06/23/2007 12:36:34 PM PDT by KylaStarr

Thanks to txflake for the ping to this thread.

Note: The following post is a quote:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2045502/posts

Weird Pre-Paid cellphone story (vanity)
7/14/08 | self
Posted on July 14, 2008 5:59:07 PM PDT by WoofDog123

Over the years I have read stories on FR about reports of muslim males buying huge numbers of pre-paid cell phones, often triggering calls to law enforcement. While I don’t generally discount reports from local media outlets (remember the OU bombing?), it seems crazy that this would be going on with nary a peep from other sources. Here is my odd story about this.

~3 months ago I was in New Orleans, and purchased a prepaid cell phone at a story on Royal street almost at canal (quarter-side). The store proprietors were obviously muslim, don’t know if pak. or arab. While the salesman was very helpful, and I paid (cash) and got my cards and phone, I then asked another 40’ish employee some questions, which he totally and completely ignored - no eye-contact, nothing. He did talk to and answer questions to a latino (in accented and somewhat broken spanish, which I am fluent in) with no apparent issue. Note that I am white (anglo-american, whatever) and clearly from the US by speech.

I then asked him more questions, such as why he ignored me, which he continued to do. I then told the original salesperson that I would like to know why this person would not speak to me. He made an apology and said other people had made the same complaint. I told him that if they did not already have my money (cash) I would certainly have walked out (it is a fact that I needed a phone immediately and would have been pressed to find the time to argue or call the police (the NOPD, mind you, though they would possibly look out for an apparent tourist in the quarter) for a refund, since the phone cards I had bought had already been loaded into the phone by the ignoring-me employee, while he ignored me.)

Then, after leaving the store, I began using the phone, and realized from the call history it had been used 3 times previously, *6 months before*, in oct 07, to 3 different numbers, 3 different area codes (one was miami, one i think was nyc, don’t remember the other but geographically distributed), and then not used again.

This made me remember the stories about masses of these phones being bought up by muslim groups of men. What if they are being used as one-time numbers, then reboxed and sold via such outlets?

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2009/November/09-nsd-1270.html

Arrests Made in Case Involving Conspiracy to Procure Weapons, Including Anti-Aircraft Missiles
US DOJ.gov - JUSTICE.gov/opa - Press Release ^ | November 23, 2009 | n/a
Posted on November 23, 2009 2:32:12 PM PST by Cindy

Note: The following text is a quote:

Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASEMonday, November 23, 2009

Arrests Made in Case Involving Conspiracy to Procure Weapons, Including Anti-Aircraft Missiles

Arrests were made today in a case involving a conspiracy to procure weapons, including anti-aircraft missiles.

A criminal complaint, unsealed today, charged Dani Nemr Tarraf with conspiring to acquire anti-aircraft missiles (FIM-92 Stingers) and conspiring to possess machine guns (approximately 10,000 Colt M4 Carbines). In addition, Tarraf and other defendants — including Douri Nemr Tarraf, Hassan Mohamad Komeiha, and Hussein Ali Asfour — were charged with conspiring to transport stolen goods. Dani Nemr Tarraf and Ali Fadel Yahfoufi were charged with conspiring to commit passport fraud.

“Keeping missiles, machine guns and other sensitive U.S. weapons technology from falling into the wrong hands is one of the Justice Department’s top priorities. I applaud the many agents, analysts and prosecutors who worked tirelessly to bring about these charges and arrests,” said David Kris, Assistant Attorney General for National Security.

“This investigation demonstrates the dedication and cooperation of law enforcement agents from numerous agencies,” said U.S. Attorney Michael L. Levy. “These cases show the breadth of criminal activity engaged in by those who oppose us. The crimes charged here range from the purchase of stolen and counterfeit goods, to the purchase of false visas and passports, to the purchase of weapons. I want to compliment the law enforcement agents, the Assistant United States Attorneys, and the attorneys in the National Security Division of the Department of Justice for their efforts.”

According to the complaint, Hassan Mohamad Komeiha began purchasing purportedly stolen cellular telephones from a law enforcement officer acting in an undercover capacity (the “UC”) in or about June 2007. Over the next several months, Komeiha and his co-conspirators [Dani Nemr Tarraf, Douri Nemr Tarraf, and Hussein Ali Asfour] purchased purportedly stolen goods from the UC, including cellular telephones, laptop computers, Sony Play Station 2 systems and automobiles.

The complaint also alleges that Dani Nemr Tarraf conspired to acquire anti-aircraft missiles and conspired to possess machine guns. According to the complaint, in or about mid-June 2009, Tarraf asked whether the UC could supply guided missiles and told the UC that he (Tarraf) wanted the UC to export approximately 10,000 “commando” machine guns [Colt M4 Carbines with short barrels] from the United States. On or about July 28, 2009, in Philadelphia, Tarraf paid the UC a deposit of approximately $20,000 toward the cost of purchasing FIM-92 Stinger missiles and approximately 10,000 Colt M4 Carbines and shipping these items outside the United States.

Finally, the complaint alleges that Dani Nemr Tarraf and his assistant, Ali Fadel Yahfoufi, conspired to commit passport fraud. In furtherance of their scheme, Yahfoufi provided passport photos of himself to the UC, Tarraf agreed to pay the UC to obtain a U.S. passport in Yahfoufi’s name, and Yahfoufi instructed the UC to submit false information to the U.S. government in a passport application.

“The FBI remains resolutely committed to working with our law enforcement partners to find and stop those individuals who commit crimes, such as those alleged today, in support of a broader intent to commit acts of terrorism against the United States,” said Special Agent-in-Charge Janice K. Fedarcyk, of the Philadelphia Division of the FBI. “Today, through the well-coordinated effort of all involved agencies, dangerous weapons have been kept out of the hands of those who would turn those weapons against the United States.”

“ICE will continue to work with its law enforcement partners to disrupt networks involved in the illegal sale and distribution of weapons and critical technologies,” said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Assistant Secretary John Morton. “Today’s arrests are a clear indication of the federal government’s commitment to keeping Americans safe.”

Information regarding the defendants is below:

Dani Nemr Tarraf, of Trnava, Slovakia, was born in 1971 and faces a potential maximum sentence of life imprisonment if convicted. Douri Nemr Tarraf, of Trnava, Slovakia, was born in 1973 and faces a potential maximum sentence of five years imprisonment if convicted. Hassan Mohamad Komeiha, of Lebanon and Dearborn, Mich., was born in 1970 and faces a potential maximum sentence of five years imprisonment if convicted. Hussein Ali Asfour, a/k/a “Alex,” of Centreville, Ga., was born in 1976 and faces a potential maximum sentence of five years imprisonment if convicted. Ali Fadel Yahfoufi, of Trnava, Slovakia, was born in 1969 and faces a potential maximum sentence of five years in prison if convicted. This case was investigated by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, the New Jersey State Police, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, the Internal Revenue Service, the U.S. Secret Service, Defense Criminal Investigative Service, the Philadelphia Police Department, the Department of Commerce, Customs and Border Protection, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, the Federal Air Marshals, Pennsylvania State Police, and the Department of State.

It is being prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorneys Nancy Beam Winter and Stephen A. Miller, and National Security Division Counter-terrorism Section Trial Attorney Jolie F. Zimmerman.