HUFFINGTON
07.28.13
WXYZ.COM
THE BIG STEAL
Deaven declined to comment
specifically about Ace Wholesale,
which he said is now under federal investigation. Last August,
federal agents armed with search
warrants raided the company’s
locations in suburban Detroit,
Atlanta and Chicago, and the
owner’s home in Taylor, Mich., according to a DHS spokesman.
Ace Wholesale’s owner, Jason
Floarea, has not been charged with
a crime. He did not respond to requests for comment. His attorney,
Jim Thomas, who has represented
high-profile clients including former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, declined to comment.
The case against Ace Wholesale
sheds light on what law enforcement and wireless providers portray as a shadowy world of smartphone trafficking. At the center
of this trade is a crucial layer of
middlemen: bulk purchasers who
Once it gets
overseas, it’s virtually
impossible to track
a phone back here
to the person who
committed the crime.
buy devices from thieves and con
artists before exporting them to
customers around the world.
In 2009, federal agents charged
Hezbollah operatives in Philadelphia with attempting to buy thousands of stolen cell phones and
ship them to Hong Kong and the
United Arab Emirates to finance
the Shiite militant organization,
which the United States considers
a terrorist group.
Earlier this year, a woman’s
iPhone stolen at a bar in San
Francisco turned up a few days
later in Lima, Peru, according to
San Francisco police.
Last fall, American and Mexican
w