A Chilean national was arrested in Texas after a burglary, during which he was able to interfere with arresting officers’ communications by using a radio jamming device.
Ignacio Castillo Contreras, 22, was charged with residential burglary and interfering with a radio frequency licensed to a government entity in connection with the incident on Feb. 8, according to West University Place Police.
During his probable cause hearing, Contreras said he is not a U.S. citizen and has only been in Houston for a couple of months, Fox 26 reported. He said he was living in a hotel.
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Police said officers discovered a radio frequency jamming device in Contreras’ backpack after he broke into a home in the 6400 block of Sewanee Avenue.
Officers within the vicinity of the device were unable to properly use their body-worn cameras and key fobs to lock and unlock patrol vehicles, court documents show. They were also unable to communicate through police-issued hand-held radio devices.
“A radio frequency tracking device sends a lot of signals very high intense signals around you,” tech expert Juan Guevara Torres said, according to Fox 26. “It blocks signals from going to point A to point B.”
“In my opinion, as a tech expert, I can tell you that whoever did this has some tactical knowledge on how to use this device and where to place them,” Torres continued.
Former Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg said Contreras’ ability “to jam up the local police officers who were responding to the calls their radios key fobs getting into their car and body cams makes it a dangerous situation for law enforcement,” according to Fox 26.
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“If you imagine an ordinary criminal committing a crime with a radio frequency jamming device, now add to that someone with real bad intent who wants to harm a lot of people like a terrorist, a mass murderer, and it gets scary quick,” Ogg said.
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