ICE purchased vehicles equipped with fake cell towers to spy on phones

US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) earlier this year paid $825,000 to a company that makes vehicles equipped with various law enforcement technologies, including fake cell phone towers known as “cell site simulators,” which can be used to spy on nearby phones.

according to Public recordsthe award dated May 8 “provides cell site simulation (CSS) vehicles in support of the Homeland Security Technical Operations Program” and is a modification of “Additional CSS Vehicles.”

The contract was signed with TechOps Specialty Vehicles (TOSV), a Maryland-based company. TOSV also signed a similar contract with ICE in September 2024 for $818,000, demonstrating that the relationship between the agency and the company predates the Trump administration.

TOSV President John Brenas told TechCrunch in an email that he couldn’t provide details about the ICE contracts and vehicles, citing “trade secrets.” But Brinas emphasized that the company provides cell site simulators, although it does not manufacture them.

“We don’t make electrical, communications and technology components, we integrate that product into our overall design of the vehicle,” said Brenas, who declined to reveal TOSV’s source for its cell site simulators.

This is the latest federal contract that Reveals some techniques Support the Trump administration’s deportation campaign.

In early September, Forbes recently found an unsealed search warrant Which showed that Immigration and Customs Enforcement used a cell site simulator to track down an individual allegedly part of a criminal gang in the United States, who was ordered to leave the country in 2023. In the article, Forbes reported It also found a contract for “cell site simulation vehicles,” but the article did not name the company providing the trucks to the agency.

Cell site simulators are also known as “stingrays” because some earlier types of these devices, made by defense contractor Harris (now L3Harris), were so named. Since then, stingray has become an umbrella name for this type of technology, also known as IMSI catchers. (IMSI is an abbreviation for International Mobile Subscriber Identity, which is a unique number that identifies every mobile phone user in the world.)

As the name suggests, cell location simulators can mimic a cell phone tower, tricking every phone in close range into contacting the device, thus giving law enforcement the ability to better determine the true location of those phones and their owners.

Some cell site simulators can also intercept regular calls, text messages, and Internet traffic.

Authorities can obtain data from traditional cell phone towers to find the current or past location of a suspect, but the location is usually not very accurate.

Stingray-like devices have been used by law enforcement for more than a decade and have long been controversial because authorities don’t always get a warrant to use them. Critics say These devices trap innocent people by default. These devices are also shrouded in secrecy, because the law enforcement agencies that use them are subject to strict agreements not to disclose how the devices work.

ICE has a long history of using cell site simulators. In 2020, documents obtained by the American Civil Liberties Union showed this ICE published it at least 466 times between 2017 and 2019. The agency used these tools more than 1,885 times between 2013 and 2017. According to documents obtained by BuzzFeed News at that time.

ICE acknowledged TechCrunch’s request for comment, but did not respond to a series of questions, which included: What does ICE use for these vehicles, whether and where they have been deployed recently, and whether the agency always gets a warrant when using cell site simulators.

From surveillance trucks to cell phones

Headquartered just outside of Washington, D.C., TOSV sells a wide range of customizable vehicles to Law enforcementsuch as SWAT armed response team trucks, bomb squads, and so-called “mobile laboratory” and “covered surveillance” vehicles.

Among these vehicles intended for police forces, TOSV lists several “projects,” including one described as Department of Homeland Security mobile forensic laboratories“, referring to the Department of Homeland Security.

According to the website, these mobile forensics trucks are “equipped for on-site forensic analysis and documentation,” have “secure compartments for evidence storage and investigative tools,” and allow for “seamless updates to case files and evidence recording.”

Another project is DHS mobile driving truck,” which TOSV says is “configurable for advanced monitoring and task coordination.”

It is unclear whether these trucks are the same vehicles that include cell site simulators, as there is no mention of a phone monitoring tool anywhere on the TOSV website.

ICE has other contracts with TOSV for mobile forensics laboratories, which do not specify technologies in the trucks.

According to its website, TOSV also sells so-called “Book carts“, which look like libraries on wheels, as well medicaland Fire department Vehicles.