CARO, Mich. -- Three Texas men were...

CARO, Mich. -- Three Texas men were arraigned Saturday onward terrorism-related charges after police plant about 1,000 cell phones in their minivan.

Investigators said they think the men were targeting the 5-mile Mackinac Bridge, which unites Michigan's Upper and Lower peninsulas. single in kind of the men said they were simply trying to buy and exchange phones to make money.

Maruan Awad Muhareb, of Mesquite, Texas; Adham Abdelhamid Othman, of Dallas, and Louai Abdelhamied Othman, of Mesquite, are charged with collecting or providing materials for terrorist acts and surveillance of a vulnerable target for terrorist aims

Adham and Louai Othman are in their early 20 and Muhareb is 18

$750000 captivitys SET

Authorities in Caro, in Michigan's agricultural Thumb region, have not said what they think the men intended to do with the phone chiefly of which were prepaid TracFones. further Caro's police chief said lonely dwelling phones can be used as detonators, and prosecutors in a similar case in Ohio have said that TracFones are frequently used by terrorists because they are not traceable.

Tuscola shire Prosecutor Mark Reene said investigators think the men were targeting the Mackinac Bridge. He declined to say what l investigators to that belief.

Messages seeking additional information were left Saturday for Reene and the FBI.

No pleas were set ined at the arraignment. Magistrate Joseph Van Auken wager bonds at $750,000, and the men were being held at the Tuscola shire Jail, Caro police said.

"All we did is purchase the phones to sell and make money" Louai Othman told Van Auken. He said it wasn't the first time the cluster had been questioned.

"We've been checked on the FBI before," he said. "They flat gave us their card and everything."

The men were stopped before dawn Friday after buying 80 enclosed space phones from a Wal-Mart in Caro. Police said they lay the foundation of about 1,000 cell phones in their minivan.

The men cooperated with police and the FBI for hours before they were arrested Friday afternoon, authorities said.

2 SEIZED IN OHIO

The arrests in Caro, about 80 miles north of Detroit, came three days after pair men from the Detroit suburb of Dearborn were arrested in Marietta, Ohio, where police said they aroused suspicions when they acknowledged buying about 600 phone in fresh months at stores in southeastern Ohio.

The Dearborn men Ali Houssaiky and Osama Abulhassan, as well-as; not only-but also; not only-but; not alone-but 20, have been charged with pair felonies -- money laundering in support of terrorism and soliciting or providing support for acts of terrorism -- and misdemeanor falsification. A preliminary hearing upon the felony counts was place for Tuesday.

Defense lawyers said Houssaiky and Abulhassan planned to resell the phone They say the men were targeted barely because they are of Arab descent

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