What looks innocent may not always be


NEW! Possible Hidden Threat
All Law Enforcement Please Take Note…

FYI OFFICER SAFETY/AWARENESS:

The Peel Regional Police in Ontario, Canada provided officer safety information reference to plastic razor blades. The razor blades are from China, and are the same size and have the same cutting ability as standard razor blades.  The plastics blades will not be seen when sent through an X-Ray machine.

There of versions of these blades as shown in the image that are also made in the USA.

Weapons believed to be
made in Eastern Europe

French police said Friday they had seized two lethal mobile phones capable of shooting four bullets, with the digital touchpads used as triggers.

The black phones, identical to normal mobile phones on the outside, were discovered in a raid on a suspected criminal's home Tuesday in the northern city of Rouen.

The deadly phones come apart in the middle to reveal a four-chamber compartment for .22 caliber bullets, which can be shot out of a protruding fake antenna. "These would be lethal at 10 meters (yards)," said Michel Lavaud, head of a local police brigade.

Police seized the telephones along with 1,000 ecstasy pills, heroin, cannabis and $25,000 in cash at the home of a man suspected of armed robberies and drug trafficking.
 

Mouse Over the image to left to see the cell gun in firing mode.

Lavaud said police thought the weapons were of a kind believed to be made in Eastern Europe and to have appeared in Belgium and the Netherlands in 2001.
      
© 2003 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication or redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters.
 

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Calculator Knife

This calculator was found on a passenger at BWI airport during screening. It's very innocent looking, but can be deadly.

To the left are photographs taken of a PYA/Monarch Calculator taken from a passenger at a B.W.I. Airport screening check point. the calculater is just 3 ½ " long by 2" tall and contains a concealed 2" knife blade, two screwdrivers and a mini flashlight.

Example Images
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Cell Phone Guns Discovered
By Lucrezia Cuen

At first sight it looks like a regular cell phone - same size, same shape, same overall appearance.  But beneath the digital face lies a .22-caliber pistol - a phone gun capable of firing four rounds in quick succession with a touch of the otherwise standard keypad.

European law enforcement officials - stunned by the discovery of these deadly decoys - say phone guns are changing the rules of engagement in Europe.

"We find it very, very alarming," says Wolfgang Dicke of the German Police union. "It means police will have to draw their weapons whenever a person being checked reaches for their mobile phone."

Although cell phone guns have not hit America yet, the FBI, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms, and the U.S.Customs Service say they've been briefed on the new weapons.
"This criminal invention represents a potentially serious threat to law enforcement and the public," said U.S. Customs Service Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly.

"We received word about these guns last month. We have since alerted our field personnel to be on the lookout for 'cell phone guns' at U.S.  ports of entry." Guns on the Move These new covert guns were first discovered in October when Dutch police stumbled on a cache during a drug raid in Amsterdam. In another recent incident a Croatian gun dealer was caught attempting to smuggle a shipment through Slovenia into Western Europe.

Police say both shipments are believed to have originated in Yugoslavia.
Interpol sent out a warning to law enforcement agencies around the world.
European border police and customs officers are at a heightened state of alert at all ports, airports and border crossings.  Realistic Appearance 'If you didn't know they were guns, you wouldn't suspect anything," said Ari Zandbergen, spokesman for the Amsterdam police.

"Only when you have one in your hand do you realize that they are heavier," says Birgit Heib of the German Federal Criminal Investigation Agency.  The guns are loaded by twisting the phone in half.  The .22-caliber rounds fit into the top of the phone under the screen. The lower half, under the keyboard, holds the firing pins. The bullets fire through the antenna by pressing the keypad from numbers five to eight.

Amsterdam police says they are very sophisticated machines constructed inside gutted cell phones which do not light up or operate as real phones.
"These are very difficult to make. We believe experts are involved," says Zandbergen. America on Alert U.S. authorities, including the FBI, ATF, Federal Aviation Administration and the U.S.  Customs Service Authority have been supplied detailed information and pictures of these new weapons. "They've been given a heads up," said Jim Crandall, ATF spokesman.

To date no phone guns have been discovered either in the United States or in the process of being smuggled in, authorities say.  But they know it's only a matter of time.

FAA spokeswoman Rebecca Trexler said airport security officers had been trained to deal with this new threat.  "We don't want to tell the bad guys exactly what we're looking for," she says, "We are trying to stay one step ahead." Will Affect Travelers Airport authorities across Europe are implementing systems to X-ray all cell phones, those procedures will likely be followed by airports around the world.

"This is just one more item that we need to pay special attention to because nowadays, of course just about every passenger carries a mobile phone," says the spokesman for Frankfurt airport security.

Customs officials in the U.S.  say their safety procedure has normally been to require travelers to turn their phones on, however that may no longer be enough. Cell phone users will have to be made aware that reaching for their phones in some circumstances could be misinterpreted as a threat by authorities.

Source: ABC News



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