Why do the arrested Egyptian exchange students have so many cell phones found with them?

Question

Why are they being found with so many phones? What are they using them for?

My fault.... two different stories...

Answer 1

Maybe they are trying to start an Ebay business here in the US

Answer 2

"Theft by Finding". That's a new one for me. I really would like it explained to me. It makes no sense whatsoever. There's more to this story than the Daily Mail are telling us. Surely??? I hope that the personal details the police took are actually destroyed. i.e. the DNA, fingerprints and photographs. I've returned many items to the police and never had any bother. Mind you, I'm under Scottish Law. Don't know if we have quite the same degree of lunacy. Edit. Across the Sea, says we are as mad. Oh well.

Answer 3

They claim they were going to re-sell them in their Michigan neighborhood at a lower price than is normally available there. However, when one considers the costs & difficulties of traveling to TX to buy them, that excuse sounds dubious. More likely whatever scheme they were involved with was going to have some sort of illegal element dependant on untraceable cell phone calls.

Answer 4

THE EXCHANGE STUDENTS AND THE CELL PHONE INCIDENTS WERE UNRELATED;
CELL PHONE STORY:
ESCANABA — Three men of Middle Eastern descent tried to buy a quantity of TracFones Aug. 7 at Escanaba's Wal-Mart Supercenter. The incident may be related to Friday's arrest in downstate Caro of three men who had almost 1,000 cell phones in their vehicle. Investigators believe the men were targeting the Mackinac Bridge.
Escanaba Public Safety Capt. Al O'Dell said this morning he is still sorting through details of the Aug. 7 case. All information gathered to date was turned over Sunday to the FBI, O'Dell said. He said the men did purchase a quantity of phones, but did not identify the specific number.
The Marquette County Sheriff's Department took a suspicious situation complaint Thursday at the Wal-Mart Supercenter there. An unknown subject reportedly bought approximately 36 cell phones Thursday evening at Marquette's Wal-Mart, said Lt. Charles Custard. The matter is still under investigation, Custard said.
It is not known what number of cell phones involved in a purchase triggers a "suspicious situation" at Wal-Mart. Employees at the downstate Caro Wal-Mart became suspicious when the arrested men purchased 80 cell phones. A phone call to Escanaba's Wal-Mart for details of the suspected transaction Aug. 7 was referred by Jamie Hebert, Escanaba's assistant manager, to Wal-Mart's Bentonville, Ark. headquarters.
"We try to be vigilant, yet very respectful," Sharon Weber, Wal-Mart spokesperson said this morning. "We try to look for anything really unusual," Weber said of cell phone purchases. "We wouldn't be doing our jobs if we didn't."
The Daily Press contacted FBI's Detroit office for more information on the Upper Peninsula cell phone purchases. However, a phone message left with the special agent for media relations there was not returned before press time.

EXCHANGE STUDENT STORY:
WASHINGTON - The last two of the 11 Egyptian exchange students who failed to show up at their college program were apprehended Sunday in Richmond, Va., customs officials said.

Last Wednesday, one of the Egyptian students was arrested in Minneapolis and two were detained in Manville, N.J. On Thursday, two were arrested in Dundalk, Md., and one was arrested at O‘Hare International Airport in Chicago. Three more were arrested Friday in Des Moines, Iowa.

After Montana State repeatedly tried to contact the missing students, it notified Homeland Security Department officials and registered the Egyptians as no-shows in a system to track foreign students developed after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

THE TWO WERE UN RELATED BUT BOTH HAD THE FEEL OF TERRORISM. GOOD THING THAT AMERICANS ARE BEING VIGILANT. SOME WOULD STILL STAY THAT WE ARE NOT IN DANGER. BUT THEY LIVE WITH THEIR EYES CLOSED.

Answer 5

You people are pathetic, you are mixing two stories.

1) Egypt exchange students roaming around

2) Americans in Michigan buying allot of cell phones for resale. and this story translates to Muslims buying cell phones for terrorist acts to kill thousands of Americans.

American media is not real news, it is propaganda and sick entertainment.

Answer 6

Since when is it illegal to have alot of phones? They are getting a bad rap and this serves to show that there is no freedom in this government anymore. What a bunch of propaganda crap.

Answer 7

because there is a certian chip or circut in them that is highly explosove when added with another component...the more phones the more chips to extract therefore the bigger bomb you can build

Answer 8

It is hard to track cell phones and their calls - easy and less expensive way to commit murder and espionage!@

Answer 9

They use them to dial a certain activation code that starts and makes a bomb explode.

Answer 10

cell phones could be used to trigger bombs or call sleeper cells