(TNND) — A foiled plot to cripple the telecommunications system in New York was bigger than investigators first realized. Special Agent in Charge of the New York Field Office, Matt McCool, released a video in late September, sharing that federal agents were first tipped off about what the Secret Service says was a China-linked plot last spring.
But it was only recently uncovered during an investigation into threats to three people, including one with direct access to President Donald Trump.
The U.S. Secret Service began a protective intelligence investigation to determine the extent and impact these threats could have on protective operations,” McCool said in that September video posted on the U.S. Secret Service’s YouTube page.
Secret Service personnel, along with officers from multiple agencies, seized hundreds of servers and over 100,000 cellphone SIM cards from around New York. Enough equipment to send 30 million anonymous texts every minute, which would collapse the telecommunications system.
They found empty apartments with servers and server walls capable of making millions of phone calls in and around New York City,” said Donald Mihalek, an ABC News Contributor who was formerly with the Secret Service.
But this week, that number expanded. Law enforcement sources told ABC News that agents from Homeland Security Investigations found an additional 200,000 SIM cards in New Jersey.
These devices allowed anonymous encrypted communications between potential threat and criminal enterprises,” said McCool.
The U.S. Secret Service is still working to figure out a motive and whether or not there was a specific target. It’s also still not clear if the equipment was supposed to be triggered during the United Nations General Assembly, which took place in New York during the last full week of September.
So far, no arrests have been made but McCool did mention that forensic examination is underway. He also indicated there was cellular communication between foreign actors and individuals known to law enforcement.