While world leaders packed into midtown for the U.N. General Assembly this week, the U.S. Secret Service raided a string of nondescript sites across the New York tri-state area and pulled the plug on a clandestine telecom network hiding in plain sight. Inside: more than 300 SIM servers wired to over 100,000 SIM cards, much of it clustered within 35 miles of the U.N.—enough hardware to blitz cell towers, clog 9-1-1, and knock New York’s mobile lifeline on its back during the city’s highest-profile week of the year.

This wasn’t some greasy boiler room peddling fake auto warranties. Investigators say the array functioned like banks of synthetic cell phones—able to mass-dial, mass-text, spoof, and launder communications for people who don’t want to be found . Officials say the system

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