Posted on 08/16/2006 10:44:31 PM PDT by SandRat
Arizona's Counter-Terrorism Information Center has advised Arizona's law enforcement officials that there is a possible increase in suspicious purchases of prepaid cell phones.
Tucson Police have been searching for two men, of Middle Eastern descent for allegedly trying to buy around 50 disposable cell phones at a local Sam's Club.
Those men are wanted for questioning, but not criminal charges.
The Counter-Terrorism center is also monitoring the case.
Tuesday, two new claims.
An inside source says at a Tucson Family Dollar store, two men have also been trying to buy cell phones from that chain.
And there's news from Huachuca City that police detained two Middle Eastern men from California for trying to buy large quantities of disposable cell phones.
Experts say that those disposable phones can't be traced and that they can be used to detonate a bomb.
Those details are exclusive to News 4 and our Lupita Murillo.
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An anonymous tip to Huachuca City police on April 21st...
Sgt. Jennifer Fuller, the dispatcher who took the call, says, "There were two Middle Eastern gentlemen buying a large amount of phones in the general area and they were headed our way."
Huachuca City police swung into action. They set up surveillance at the Dollar General and the Family Dollar stores.
They soon spottd the black Ford Explorer with a California license plate, the vehicle the caller told police about.
Three people -- a woman, and two men with Middle Eastern names -- were detained, questioned, and later released by federal agents.
Sgt. Fuller says "The ICE agents checked with their supervisors and, because nothing illegal was going on, the two men were allowed to leave."
Police found in the vehicle, a large number of prepaid cell phones.
Sgt. Fuller says, "They had purchased about 300 phones in the surrounding areas. Later discovered 1000 in their vehicle."
"They had taken phones out of the containers, out of the packages. They didn't take chargers, didn't take instructions how to activate the phone, they just left everything else behind."
So while purchasing 1000 phones may not be illegal, Huachuca City police say, "It's just enough to make you think it's not right."
As we mentioned, there's a new report of big cell phone purchases in Tucson Family Dollar stores as well.
A source tells News 4 that on Saturday, 2 men came in to try to buy as many cell phones as they could.
The source says this has been happening for the last two months.
Family Dollar released a statement to News 4, saying that it sells the disposable phones without a contract for customer convenience, but says, "While the program has been very well received by our customers, we do limit (the) purchase to two per customer to curtail opportunities for re-sale in other markets."
In France they could be held without charges for three years.
i got one because it is cheap 20 bucks for the phone 20 bucks every other month for air time.of course i don't use it very much.but it's agood deal.
Great. Thanks for the tip, Barney Fife.
OK, so we know they like to set off IED's with cell phones. What would be mass simultaneous targets that would require thousands? High schools? how about gas stations?
and of course they probably let them go ...can't have profiling doncha know...
It's quite likely in more than their minds - it might even be a well-advanced plan. My personal theory is that cell phones are to be used as detonators for tens of thousands of bombs spread all over the country, and over a period of days, weeks - even months. We're thinking local WMD, they're thinking widespread conventional weapons. More terror in more places with much less risk of successful detection. Scared yet? You ought to be.
If one of you can convince me I'm wrong, I would really appreciate it.
Taking your question in a different direction: Cell phones do not communicate directly from one to another, their communications have to be relayed from repeater sites. In order to use those sites, the phone has to be activated. In order to activate the phone, it has to be charged. If the intent was to use the phones as trigger devices, how would you get them charged and activated without the chargers and/or batteries.
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That would prevent someone from accidentally dialing into it until it was ready to be a detonator. That would also allow for a few 'mistakes' to be made from people calling old recycled phone numbers.
The cell phones are sold at a loss so that the phone companies can make money selling minutes to the buyer. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) Similar to selling printers cheaply in order to sell ink and toner refills. (Not that there's anyting wrong with that.)
The guys from Dallas (well known in the area) buy lots of phones (around $30) from WalMart and resell them overseas; they may fetch $100 in Hong Kong (USD or HKD?).
It's all about supply and demand.
You can't dial into it anyway if it's not activated, or on. I get this picture of some terrorist attempting to trigger an IED and a voice on the phone is saying, "press one to activate this phone, press two, to add air-time....."
Or buying too much Benedryl, too many cigarrettes, to many .45 rounds, too much lawn fertilizer, too many pink plastic flamingos, etc.
They should inject them with a personal tracking device, the kind people now use for their pets, and then release them.
Shopping Malls, Youth Hangouts, Sports events, Dr's Offices, Libraries, etc
That's it, I am buying stock in Tracphones.
Here's an idea which may or may not be already out there. What if the terrorist know there is going to be an attack on, let's say the 22nd, and they are stocking up.
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