ICE bought vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy on phones 

The US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) provided $ 825,000 earlier this year to a company that created various technologies for law enforcement, including a fake cellphone towers known as “Cell-Site Simulator”, which can be used on phones nearby.

Accordingly Public recordsMay 8th award “Homeland Security Technical Operations Program provides Cell Site Simulator (CSS) vehicles” and it is a change in “Additional CSS Vehicle”.

The deal was signed with the Techops Specialty Vehicle (TOSV), a Maryland -based company. TOSVO signed a similar agreement with the ICE in September 2021 and showed that the relationship between the agency and the agency predicted the Trump administration.

TOSV president Zone Brianas told TechCrunch in an email that he could not provide details about the ice agreement and vehicles by referring to “trade privacy”. However, Brianas confirmed that the company provided the cell-site simulator, though it did not make them.

“We do not produce electric, coms and technology components, we integrate the product in our car’s overall design,” Branas said, who refused to say to TOSV to say its cell-site simulators.

Which is the latest federal agreement Reveals some technology To strengthen the trump administration’s deportation crackdown.

In early September, Forbes has recently received an unsile search search warrant It showed that the ICE used a cell-site simulator to identify a person who complained that a criminal gang was part of the United States who was ordered to leave the country in 2021. In the article. Forbes has reported It also found an agreement for the “Cell Site Simulator Vehicle”, but the article did not name the agency the van suppliers.

Cell-sight simulators also go to “stinggra” because some of these devices made by defense contractor Harris (now L3 Harris) were named after a few previous types of these devices. Since then, SaintGrays has become a catch-all name for this kind of technology, it is also known IMSI CatcherThe (IMSI means international mobile customer identity, it is a unique number that marks every cellphone user in the world))

By the name, the cell-site simulator tools can duplicate a cellphone tower, drive each phone to its nearest range to connect the device, and thus gives the law enforcement the ability to identify the phone and their owners better.

Some cell -ite simulators can also prevent regular calls, text messages and internet traffic.

Authorities can get data from the Traditional Cellphone Cellphone Tower to find the current or past position of the suspect. But the location is usually not very precise.

Devices like stinggrey have been used by law enforcement for more than a decade and have long been disputed because authorities do not always receive warrants for their use and Critics say These devices indulge in innocent people by default. These devices are also spread in privacy, because law enforcement agencies who use them are under a strict non-publisher agreement not to reveal how devices work.

ICE’s cell-site simulators have a long history of use. In 2020, the American Civil Liberties union showed documents received Ice has deployed at least 466 times between 2017 and 2019The The company has used these tools more than 1,885 times between 2013 and 2017, According to the documents received by Bajfid News There

ICE recognizes TechCrunch request for comments, but not answered multiple questions, including: what ICE uses for these vehicles, whether they have recently been deployed and whether the agency always receives the agency when using a cell-site simulator.

From surveillance van to bookmobile

Headquarters outside Washington DC, TOSV sells broad customized vehicles Law enforcementVans, bomb squad and so -called “mobile labs” and “cover surveillance” vehicles for such swat armed reactions teams.

Among these vehicles for the police force, TOSV listed a number of “projects”, one of which has been described DHS Mobile Forensic LabReferring to the Homeland Security Department.

According to the website, these mobile forensic vans are “equipped for forensic analysis and documentation on the site,” contains “and enable the investigating equipment,” and “Enable the updated case file update and proof logging.”

Another project DHS Mobile Command Van“Which TOSV says it is” is configured for advanced surveillance and mission coordination. ”

It is not clear that these vans are the same vehicles that include cell-site simulators, as there is no mention of phone surveillance equipment on the TOSV website.

ICE has other agreements with TOSV for mobile forensic labs, which do not specify what technology is in the vans.

According to its website, TOSV also sells the so -called. “Bookmobile“Which is present as a library in the wheels, as well as TreatmentAnd Fire department Vehicles