Terrorists or entrepreneurs?

last updated 8 January 2015

Caro, Mich.

Police arrested three college-age American men of Palestinian descent last week, after they bought 80 prepaid cellular phones at a local Wal-Mart. The phones can be used to detonate bombs, and police suspected that the men intended to use the phones to blow up the nearby Mackinac Bridge, a picture of which was found on a computer belonging to one of the men. Now, though, state and federal authorities say the three probably planned to modify the $20 phones and sell them to a wholesaler in Texas for as much as $38 apiece. The men have no known connection to terrorist groups, according to the FBI. “These are college students who just want to make money,” said Sobhi Abdulhassan, father of one of the arrested men. Reselling the phones may constitute consumer fraud, however, and Caro police continue to hold the three on bail of $750,000 each.