Comment by solid_fuel

My read is slightly different:

> 1. Sim box operators were running multiple locations for sending spam texts, cheap VoIP for scams, and potentially other phone-related crimes.

Agree, I would guess this was just a bottom-rate VOIP/text spam service, potentially affiliated/run by organized crime, that doesn't ask many questions, accepts payment exclusively in BTC, etc.

> 2. Operators were associated with other criminal gangs. Maybe directly, maybe indirectly. Someone may have been running a drug side-business from a location.

I think this is just another version of a grow-op. Run by a gang, mainly for profit. Perhaps the shelves were even from an old grow-op that became unprofitable when New York legalized marijuana.

> 3. Someone uses this sim box operation to send threatening scam messages that happen to reach these government officials. For whatever reason, they take it seriously.

I disagree here, from the description of the messages I think these were supposed to be actionable threats. At least two of the incidents mentioned were swatting attempts, which are still taken somewhat seriously and are treated as serious threats when directed at elected officials. US Police are highly armed and often very aggressive, swatting incidents have resulted in deaths before.

This, to me, reeks of the sort of foreign interference with domestic politics that has been mentioned in the past. Trying to escalate domestic tensions is straight out of that playbook.

What I think happened is - some foreign actor used organized crime connections, or some other way in to get time on this spam farm, and they used the numbers there to SWAT and threaten officials around the US in a way that's harder to trace than a regular VOIP provider.

> 4. Now that the feds and NYPD have raided this sim box operation, they have to justify why they were doing this. It's probably not directly illegal to run a sim box farm so they are going to play up the threat a bit to get more coverage of the investigation.

I think they see this as a wonderful coincidence. With the setup as described in the article, I could see this farm overloading the few cells that serve the particular area around whichever building(s?) these sites were found in, but city cellular networks are very dense. There's hundreds of mobile cells in New York City, and frankly I think if you wanted to seriously take down the cell network a few high power jammers distributed across the city would be more effective.

And yeah, I wouldn't be surprised if this isn't directly illegal, although I bet the operation as a whole has been dodging taxes and know-your-customer rules. But, here we have a golden opportunity to play this up as a major terrorist threat instead of just organized crime, and they're going to take that option every time.