[Cell Phone Guns]

Cellphones are carried by almost everyone these days. No one will think that yours is actually a non lethal self defense weapon

[When]
Someone is building cell phone guns and distributing them through the criminal underground. These weapons first showed up in Europe in late 2000.

[Mechanism]
The weapon is built around a hollow cell phone case. The mechanism is installed inside the case so that by hitting the correct buttons, the cell phone case comes apart. In the top half you can see four .22 caliber (5.56mm) bullets in short barrels that are concealed by the plastic covering at the top of the cell phone. When you snap the cell phone back together, four of the buttons on the cell phone will release a spring loaded firing pin into the rear of one of the bullets, firing it out the front of the case. It's not very accurate, but from a few feet away, a shot in the head will kill, and a hit anywhere else will be felt.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.

[Where]
These cell phone guns have not yet been reported in the United States. But the FBI, Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms and the U.S. Customs Service have all been briefed on the new weapons, as have all U.S. ports of entry. No one is sure, but it is thought that the cell phone guns were invented, and are being built, somewhere in the Balkans.

[Risk]
While they look like cell phones, if you hold one in your hand they are noticeably heavier. For criminals, especially professional killers, such weapons would be useful in situations where people are being frisked for weapons when entering a club, or a meeting with other gangsters. The weapons could also be smuggled into jails to aid in prison escapes. Commandos and spies might find this device useful as well. The weapons could also be used to hijack aircraft.

[CAPTURED]
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 crossing.

"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. 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.