U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) paid $825,000 earlier this 12 months to an organization that manufactures automobiles geared up with varied applied sciences for legislation enforcement, together with pretend cellphone towers generally known as “cell-site simulators,” which can be utilized to spy on close by telephones.
Based on public records, the award dated Could 8 “offers Cell Web site Simulator (CSS) Automobiles to assist the Homeland Safety Technical Operations program” and is a modification for “further CSS Automobiles.”
The contract was signed with TechOps Specialty Automobiles (TOSV), a Maryland-based firm. TOSV additionally signed the same contract with ICE in September 2024 for $818,000, exhibiting that the connection between the company and the corporate predates the Trump administration.
TOSV president Jon Brianas advised TechCrunch in an e mail that he couldn’t present particulars in regards to the ICE contracts and the automobiles, citing “commerce secrets and techniques.” However Brianas did affirm that the corporate does present cell-site simulators, though it doesn’t make them.
“We don’t manufacture electrical, comms, and know-how parts, we combine that product into our total design of the car,” mentioned Brianas, who declined to say from the place TOSV sources its cell-site simulators.
That is the most recent federal contract that reveals some of the technologies powering the Trump administration’s deportation crackdown.
In early September, Forbes found a recently unsealed search warrant that confirmed that ICE used a cell-site simulator to trace down an individual who allegedly was a part of a prison gang in the USA, and who had been ordered to go away the nation in 2023. Within the article, Forbes reported that it additionally discovered a contract for “cell web site simulator automobiles,” however the article didn’t title the corporate that gives the vans to the company.
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Cell-site simulators additionally go by the title “stingrays” as a result of a number of the earlier sorts of these units, made by protection contractor Harris (now L3Harris), have been named that method. Since then, stingrays have change into a catch-all title for one of these know-how, often known as IMSI catchers. (IMSI stands for Worldwide Cell Subscriber Id, a singular quantity that identifies each cellphone consumer on the earth.)
Because the title suggests, cell-site simulators instruments can mimic a cellphone tower, tricking each cellphone in its close by vary to connect with the gadget and thus giving legislation enforcement the flexibility to raised determine the real-world location of these telephones and their homeowners.
Some cell-site simulators may also intercept common calls, textual content messages, and web visitors.
Authorities can get information from conventional cellphone towers to search out the present or previous location of a suspect, however the location is often not very exact.
Stingray-like units have been in use by legislation enforcement for greater than a decade and have lengthy been controversial as a result of authorities don’t all the time get a warrant for his or her use, and critics say these units ensnare harmless individuals by default. These units are additionally shrouded in secrecy, as a result of the legislation enforcement companies who use them are below strict non-disclosure agreements to not reveal how the units work.
ICE has a protracted historical past of utilizing cell-site simulators. In 2020, paperwork obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union confirmed that ICE deployed them at least 466 times between 2017 and 2019. The company used these instruments greater than 1,885 instances between 2013 and 2017, according to documents obtained by BuzzFeed News on the time.
ICE acknowledged TechCrunch’s request for remark, however didn’t reply to a collection of questions, which included: what ICE makes use of these automobiles for, whether or not and the place they’ve lately been deployed, and whether or not the company all the time will get a warrant when utilizing cell-site simulators.
From surveillance vans to bookmobiles
Headquartered simply exterior of Washington D.C., TOSV sells a variety of customizable automobiles to law enforcement, corresponding to vans for SWAT armed response groups, bomb squads, and so-called “cell lab” and “cowl surveillance” automobiles.
Amongst these automobiles for police forces, TOSV lists a number of “initiatives,” together with one described as DHS Mobile Forensic Labs, referring to the Division of Homeland Safety.
Based on the web site, these cell forensic vans are “geared up for on-site forensic evaluation and documentation,” have “safe compartments for proof preservation and investigative instruments,” and allow “seamless case file updates and proof logging.”
One other undertaking is the DHS Mobile Command Van,” which TOSV says it’s “configurable for superior surveillance and mission coordination.”
It’s unclear if these vans are the identical automobiles that embrace cell-site simulators, as there’s no point out of the cellphone surveillance instrument anyplace on TOSV’s web site.
ICE has different contracts with TOSV for cell forensic labs, which don’t specify what applied sciences are positioned within the vans.
Based on its web site, TOSV additionally sells so-called “bookmobiles,” which look like libraries on wheels, in addition to medical, and fire department automobiles.
