The secret service breaks the threat of telecommunication near the UN General Assembly

The US Secret Service has violated a network of telecommunications devices that could close cellular systems as leaders gather for the General Nations General Assembly in New York.

The agency said on Tuesday that last month it discovered more than 300 SIM server and 100,000 SIM cards that could be used for telecommunications attacks in the area covering parts of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut.

“This network had the power to deactivate the towers of mobile phones and essentially to close the cellular network in New York,” said the special agent that corresponds to Matt McCowul.

The devices were found within 35 miles (56 km) of the UN, where leaders meet this week.

McCoule said that “a well -organized and well -funded” scheme includes “participants in the threat of nation -states and persons known to federal law enforcement bodies”.

Unidentified participants in nation -states have sent encrypted messages to organized criminal groups, cartels and terrorist organizations, he added.

The equipment was capable of sending text messages to the entire US population within 12 minutes, employees say. It may also have disabled mobile phone towers and start a distributed failure of service attacks that may have blocked emergency communications.

The devices were seized from SIM farms in abandoned residential buildings in more than five sites. Officials did not specify the locations.

The discovery has followed an investigation into anonymous “phone threats” aimed at three US government officials this spring, unnamed officials told The New York Times.

One of the officials works in the secret service and the other two work in the White House, according to the newspaper.

Investigators also told CBS News that they have found 80 g of cocaine, illegal firearms, computers and phones.

More than 100 world leaders and delegations have gathered in Midtown Manhattan for the 80th anniversary of the UN General Assembly in New York.