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. 
ABCNEWS’ Christel Kucharz in Bonn and Andrew Chang in
New York contributed to this report.
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