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

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) paid $825,000 earlier this twelvemonth to a institution that manufactures vehicles equipped with assorted technologies for instrumentality enforcement, including fake cellphone towers known arsenic “cell-site simulators,” which can beryllium utilized to spy connected adjacent phones.  

According to public records, the grant dated May 8 “provides Cell Site Simulator (CSS) Vehicles to enactment the Homeland Security Technical Operations program” and is simply a modification for “additional CSS Vehicles.”  

The declaration was signed with TechOps Specialty Vehicles (TOSV), a Maryland-based company. TOSV besides signed a akin declaration with ICE successful September 2024 for $818,000, showing that the narration betwixt the bureau and the institution predates the Trump administration.  

TOSV president Jon Brianas told TechCrunch successful an email that helium could not supply details astir the ICE contracts and the vehicles, citing “trade secrets.” But Brianas did corroborate that the institution does supply cell-site simulators, though it does not marque them. 

“We don’t manufacture electrical, comms, and exertion components, we integrate that merchandise into our wide plan of the vehicle,” said Brianas, who declined to accidental from wherever TOSV sources its cell-site simulators.  

This is the latest national declaration that reveals immoderate of the technologies powering the Trump administration’s deportation crackdown. 

In aboriginal September, Forbes recovered a precocious unsealed hunt warrant that showed that ICE utilized a cell-site simulator to way down a idiosyncratic who allegedly was portion of a transgression pack successful the United States, and who had been ordered to permission the state successful 2023. In the article, Forbes reported that it besides recovered a declaration for “cell tract simulator vehicles,” but the nonfiction did not sanction the institution that provides the vans to the agency. 

Cell-site simulators besides spell by the sanction “stingrays” due to the fact that immoderate of the earlier types of these devices, made by defence contractor Harris (now L3Harris), were named that way. Since then, stingrays person go a catch-all sanction for this benignant of technology, besides known arsenic IMSI catchers. (IMSI stands for International Mobile Subscriber Identity, a unsocial fig that identifies each cellphone idiosyncratic successful the world.) 

As the sanction suggests, cell-site simulators tools tin mimic a cellphone tower, tricking each telephone successful its adjacent scope to link to the instrumentality and frankincense giving instrumentality enforcement the quality to amended place the real-world determination of those phones and their owners.  

Some cell-site simulators tin besides intercept regular calls, substance messages, and net traffic. 

Authorities tin get information from accepted cellphone towers to find the existent oregon past determination of a suspect, but the determination is usually not precise precise.  

Stingray-like devices person been successful usage by instrumentality enforcement for much than a decennary and person agelong been arguable due to the fact that authorities bash not ever get a warrant for their use, and critics say these devices ensnare guiltless radical by default. These devices are besides shrouded successful secrecy, due to the fact that the instrumentality enforcement agencies who usage them are nether strict non-disclosure agreements not to uncover however the devices work. 

ICE has a agelong past of utilizing cell-site simulators. In 2020, documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union showed that ICE deployed them astatine slightest 466 times betwixt 2017 and 2019. The bureau utilized these tools much than 1,885 times betwixt 2013 and 2017, according to documents obtained by BuzzFeed News astatine the time. 

ICE acknowledged TechCrunch’s petition for comment, but did not respond to a bid of questions, which included: what ICE uses these vehicles for, whether and wherever they person precocious been deployed, and whether the bureau ever gets a warrant erstwhile utilizing cell-site simulators.  

From surveillance vans to bookmobiles 

Headquartered conscionable extracurricular of Washington D.C., TOSV sells a wide scope of customizable vehicles to law enforcement, specified arsenic vans for SWAT equipped effect teams, weaponry squads, and alleged “mobile lab” and “cover surveillance” vehicles.  

Among these vehicles for constabulary forces, TOSV lists respective “projects,” including 1 described arsenic DHS Mobile Forensic Labs, referring to the Department of Homeland Security. 

According to the website, these mobile forensic vans are “equipped for on-site forensic investigation and documentation,” person “secure compartments for grounds preservation and investigative tools,” and alteration “seamless lawsuit record updates and grounds logging.” 

Another task is the DHS Mobile Command Van,” which TOSV says it’s “configurable for precocious surveillance and ngo coordination.”  

It’s unclear if these vans are the aforesaid vehicles that see cell-site simulators, arsenic there’s nary notation of the telephone surveillance instrumentality anyplace connected TOSV’s website.  

ICE has different contracts with TOSV for mobile forensic labs, which don’t specify what technologies are located successful the vans. 

According to its website, TOSV besides sells alleged “bookmobiles,” which look to beryllium libraries connected wheels, arsenic good arsenic medical, and fire department vehicles.