Pakistanis Sure Love Their Cellphones

We had the story yesterday about the two men from Deabornistan who were out buying multiple cellphones, and today there's another story along a similar vein:

Around 1:00am August 11th three men purchased cell phones from the Wal-Mart store on M-81 near the corner of M-24 in Caro. Wal-Mart places a limit on the number of cell phones that can be purchased at once, that number is three. The three men allegedly bought 80 by purchasing them three at time so that an alert wouldn't be triggered by the cash register. They also paid cash.

An alert clerk grew suspicious and called Tuscola County central dispatch. The Caro Police Department sent a unit and stopped the rented van on M-81 just east of Caro. The suspects were headed towards Bad Axe on M-81 where there is another Super Wal-Mart.

The three men were described as being of Pakistani descent but live in Texas. Police say the three, ages 19, 22, and 23 appear to be naturalized citizens. One man was driving while the other two were in the back opening the phone packages with box cutters throwing the phones in one box, batteries in another and the packaging and phone charger in another container. The suspects had 1000 other cell phones in the van. There was also a bag of receipts showing that someone was in Wisconsin the day before.

The phones were Nokia Tracfones selling for $20 at Wal-Mart. For your twenty dollars you receive a phone charger and 40 minutes of airtime. The phones do not have to be registered with a name. Also discovered was a laptop with store addresses and store logos.

As mentioned yesterday, terrorists remove the chips from untraceable cellphones like this and use them as bomb detonators. These guys had a different story (of course):

The men have been "cooperative, upfront, not hiding" anything according to police. They also told officers they get stopped frequently and say they buy the phones for $20 and sell them elsewhere for $38. They sell them without the packaging or charger.

Yeah, right. Let's think about that for a moment. If any old Mohammed can walk into a Wal-Mart and buy these things for $20, what kind of person is going to be willing to pay nearly twice that much and not even get the charger or packaging? Only someone involved in a criminal enterprise of some sort, be it terrorism or drug dealing, is going to be willing to pay that much of a premium to avoid detection. This whole thing stinks.