US Immigration and Customs Implementation (ICE) paid $ 825,000 earlier this year to a company that manufactures vehicles equipped with various law enforcement technologies, including false mobile telephones known as “cell simulators”.
According to public recordsThe May 8 Award “provides cell simulator vehicles (CSS) to support the internal security technical functions” and is amended for “CSS additional vehicles”.
The contract was signed with Specialty Techops (TOSV) vehicles, a company based in Maryland. TOSV also signed a similar contract with Ice in September 2024 for $ 818,000, showing that the relationship between the Agency and the company is preceded by the Trump administration.
Tosv President Jon Brianas told TechCrunch in an email that he could not provide details of ice and vehicles, citing “commercial secrets”. But Brianas confirmed that the company provides cellular simulators, though it does not.
“We do not manufacture electric, Comms and technological components, we incorporate this product into the overall design of the vehicle,” said Brianas, who refused to say where TOSV goes to the simulators of the cell position.
This is the latest federal contract that reveals some of the technologies that supply the suppression of Trump’s deportation.
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Do you have more information about Ice and the use of simulators? From a non-work device, you can contact Lorenzo Franceschi-bicchierai safely on the signal on +1 917 257 1382, or via the telegraph and keybase @lorenzofb or email. You can also contact TechCrunch via securedrop.
In early September, Forbes found a recently detached survey warrant This has shown that the ice used a cell position to identify a person allegedly part of a criminal gang in the United States and who had been ordered to leave the country in 2023. In the article, in the article, in the article, Forbes reported That he also found a contract for “cell simulator vehicles”, but the article did not name the company providing the trucks to the organization.
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The simulators of the cell position also go by the name “Stingrays” because some of the previous types of these devices, made by the Harris Defense Contractor (now L3Harris), were named in this way. Since then, Stingrays have become a name for this type of technology, also known as Catchers IMSI. (IMSI represents the international identity of the mobile subscriber, a unique number that identifies every mobile user in the world.)
As the name suggests, the cell simulator tools can mimic a mobile tower, deceive each phone in its close range to connect to the device and thus enforce the law the opportunity to better identify the true position of these phones and their owners.
Some cellular simulators can also prevent regular calls, text messages and internet circulation.
Authorities can receive data from traditional mobile towers to find the current or previous position of a suspect, but the location is usually not very accurate.
Stingray -type devices are used by law enforcement for more than a decade and have long been controversial because authorities do not always receive a warrant for their use and say critics These devices reinforce innocent people by default. These devices also surround the secrecy, because the law enforcement services are under strict no disclosure agreements not to disclose the way the devices work.
Ice has a long history using cell simulators. In 2020, documents received by the US Association of Civil Liberty showed that ICE developed them at least 466 times between 2017 and 2019. The Organization used these tools over 1,885 times between 2013 and 2017, According to documents received by Buzzfeed News At that time.
Ice recognized TechCrunch’s request for comments, but did not answer a series of questions that included: What Ice uses these vehicles for whether and where they have recently developed and whether the organization always gets a warrant during the use of cell simulators.
From tracking trucks to bookmobiles
Based just outside Washington, DC, TOSV sells a wide range of customized vehicles law enforcementLike Vans for Swat Armed response groups, bomb groups and “Mobile Lab” and “Cover Cover Surveillance”.
Among these vehicles for police forces, TOSV lists quite a few “projects” including one described as DHS Mobile Forensic LabsReferring to the Ministry of Homeland Security.
According to the website, these mobile forensic lorries are “equipped for the field of forensic analysis and documentation”, have “safe apartments for maintenance and research tools” and allow “smooth file updates and data recordings”.
Another project is the DHS Mobile Command van“Which TOSV says is” designed for advanced surveillance and tuning “.
It is not clear whether these trucks are the same vehicles that include cellular simulators, as there is no reference to the phone tracking tool anywhere on the TOSV website.
Ice has other contracts with TOSV for mobile forensic laboratories, which do not determine which technologies are on the trucks.
According to its website, TOSV also sells so -called “bookmobiles“Which seems to be libraries on wheels, as well as medical and fire department vehicles.
