3 Arrested on Terrorism Charges in Mich. for buying prepaid cellphones

["Richard M. Smith" <rms () bsf-llc com>]

http://www.wtopnews.com/index.php?nid=104&sid=879155 
  
CARO, Mich. (AP) - Three men were arrested Friday on charges of supporting
terrorism after they purchased 80 prepaid mobile phones from a Wal-Mart
store, police said. 

The men, all from the Dallas area, were being held on charges of soliciting
or providing material support for terrorism and obtaining information of a
vulnerable target for the purposes of terrorism, police Sgt. Dale Stevenson
said. They told investigators they planned to resell the phones to a
wholesaler for profit, police said. 
  
Stevenson declined to elaborate on how the case relates to terrorism.
Telephone messages were left Friday with the Tuscola County prosecutor's
office and the FBI, which assisted with the investigation. 

The men, ages 18, 22 and 23, were being held in Tuscola County Jail and
scheduled to be arraigned Saturday. 

Stevenson said the men went to a 24-hour Wal-Mart store in Caro early Friday
and bought the cell phones despite a store policy limiting customers to
three phones per purchase. A Wal-Mart clerk who thought the purchases were
suspicious alerted police. 

"They target these stores late, in the morning, hoping to get an
inexperienced clerk," Stevenson said. 

Police stopped the men's van about 1:30 a.m. and found nearly 1,000 phones,
most of which were prepaid TracFones, along with a laptop computer and a bag
of receipts, Stevenson said. 

"The cell phones can be used as detonators. Batteries can be disassembled
and used to make methamphetamine. Obviously there's something wrong here,"
Caro Police Chief Ben Page said. 

...

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