A 37-year-old Pakistani national is due to appear in the Durban Magistrate’s Court later this week on charges of contravening the telecommunications act. He was apprehended while seated and looking shady in his car, following an anonymous tip-off. He had 4 000 Pre-Rica’d SIM cards in the car, and police found thousands more after searching his home.

The man was arrested at the corner of Dr Goonam (Prince Edward) Street and Ingcuce (Albert) Road by the Durban Police’s Dog Unit yesterday.

Later, police searched the man’s Isipingo Beach home and recovered about 60 000 more starter packs. They also witnessed his South African-born wife trying to trash a computer and Rica machine by throwing them on the floor when they arrived.

His South African identity document was seized in the raid, and it’s believed he is part of a national syndicate.

The packs were destined for small cellphone outlets in Durban and could be purchased without proof of identification – as we reported in July – which by law is compulsory.

The more than 60 000 SIM cards were an amalgamation of three major cellphone operators in the country, but had all been registered in the arrested man’s name with false details.

A police source told Independent Newspapers:

There were boxes and boxes of the starter packs. It took the team more than three hours to load them into the vans. Most the stuff had been couriered from Johannesburg.

It appears that the man was working in cahoots with people possibly employed by the service providers. The starter packs were all sealed and do not appear suspicious on the surface. We managed to establish all the packs had been Rica’d because they were marked with pink paint. He also confirmed the status to police.

The boxes were delivered by a reputable courier company, it seems it is a well-oiled operation that is worth multimillions.

Some of the SIM cards had already been Rica registered, and the rest had been done at his home with the help of the machine and the computer. The man had R10 credited to his bank account for each SIM card seized, and each was to be sold for R20 – placing the seizures street value at R1,2 million.

The problem lies with the machine itself, which allows the man to create the single identity that he was using to sell the cards.

The source continued:

What is so worrying, is that there is no way to trace the Sim cards. According to Rica they all belong to [him]. All 60 000 of them.

This shows there is a loophole that the Department of Telecommunications needs to close in on. Criminals can easily obtain their starter packs over the counter. [It’s easy to] conduct illegal activities and then get rid of it. There will be no way of tracking it.

We thought we had a problem with pirate dvds, this is a new storm to hit us.

Of course, the man was unwilling to divulge any details about who his sources were. He will also face charges of fraud.

[Source: IOL]