CARO, Mich.—Three men were arrested on terrorism charges after reportedly buying 80 prepaid phones from a Wal-Mart store in Michigan. Police found about 1,000 phones in the men’s van.
According to the Associated Press, most of the phones were from Tracfone Wireless Inc., which offers prepaid service via multiple carriers and whose phones are considered “untraceable.”
The men—two brothers in their early 20s and an 18-year-old cousin, all of whom live in Texas—are suspected of targeting the 5-mile-long Mackinac Bridge in northern Michigan. They are being held on bonds of $750,000 each, the AP reported.
“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 told the AP.
However, the men’s family members told several news outlets that they had driven to Michigan to buy phones relatively cheaply, then sell them for a profit of about $5 apiece to a wholesaler in Texas.
