Feds Uncover 200K More SIM Cards in 'China-Linked Plot'

Last week, Secret Service agents announced they'd unearthed a huge secret telecommunications network in the New York tristate area, complete with 100,000 SIM cards and hundreds of servers found in various locations not far from United Nations headquarters. Now, an added layer: Law enforcement sources say that Homeland Security Investigations agents have stumbled upon an additional 200,000 SIM cards, this time at a site in New Jersey, with the feds claiming "a China-linked plot that could have crippled every cell tower in the nation's largest city, jammed 911 calls, and unleashed chaos on communications networks," per ABC News.

In the earlier sting, the SIM cards were seized at around five sites in and near New York City, with officials noting that the gear would enable anonymous, encrypted communication and could blast out 30 million text messages per minute—effectively jamming up cellular networks and, potentially, delaying response from the city's counterterrorism and emergency response teams during emergencies. An official briefed on the probe does the bigger math, adding that the "well-organized and well-funded" network had the capability to "text message the entire country within 12 minutes," per CBS News. Some have speculated the network could be used for surveillance as well. No arrests have yet been made.