The U.S. Secret Service disabled a large telecommunications network in the New York tristate area this week that posed a major threat to President Trump and other senior U.S. officials who are attending the U.N. General Assembly meetings in New York City, the agency said Tuesday.
A Secret Service investigation uncovered 300 SIM servers and 100,000 SIM cards across five sites, according to a Secret Service press release. According to investigators, these sites could have been used to send anonymous threatening text messages, disable cell towers and facilitate encrypted communications between criminal actors.
“The potential for disruption to our country’s telecommunications posed by this network of devices cannot be overstated,” Secret Service Director Sean Curran wrote. “The U.S. Secret Service’s protective mission is all about prevention, and this investigation makes it clear to potential bad actors that imminent threats to our protectees will be immediately investigated, tracked down and dismantled.”
Secret Service officials said emerging telephonic threats to U.S. officials in the spring prompted the investigation and law enforcement dismantled the network over the past three weeks.
A Secret Service official also told reporters this week that the telecommunications network could have sent text messages to the entire country “within 12 minutes,” adding that it was an extremely well-funded operation.
The telecommunication sites were located within 35 miles of the U.N. building in New York City, where global leaders are meeting this week for the annual General Assembly. Mr. Trump is expected to speak on Tuesday morning, and several high-profile U.S. officials will be attending this week.
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Secret Service officials implied that early analysis has uncovered which U.S. officials were targeted by the network but declined to reveal their names, citing privacy concerns.
The investigators said they are still combing through troves of SIM card data.
Secret Service officials reported that the network’s SIM cards were used for communications between foreign governments and parties already known to U.S. law enforcement, including members of drug cartels and human trafficking organizations.
Investigators also found miscellaneous cellphones and computers, along with various firearms and 80 grams of cocaine at the sites.
“The timing, the location, the proximity of this network had the potential to impact the U.N. and that was clear and something that we had to consider,” Secret Service Special Agent in Charge Matt McCool said in a video.
The investigation into the telecommunications network is ongoing, Secret Service officials said, with the newly established “Advanced Threat Interdiction Unit” of the U.S. Secret Service and Homeland Security Investigations leading the way.
• Vaughn Cockayne can be reached at vcockayne@washingtontimes.com.
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