❓WHAT HAPPENED: The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced on Monday a significant change to a 2007 phone unlocking rule, which it says has inadvertently aided criminal enterprises that wish to use higher-end devices as difficult-to-trace burner phones.
👤WHO WAS INVOLVED: The FCC, Verizon, TracFone, and criminal organizations, including drug cartels.
📍WHEN & WHERE: The rule change was announced on Monday, January 12, 2026.
💬KEY QUOTE: “Sophisticated criminal networks have exploited the FCC’s handset unlocking policies to carry out criminal acts—including transnational handset trafficking schemes and facilitating broader criminal enterprises like drug running and human smuggling.” — FCC Chairman Brendan Carr
🎯IMPACT: The FCC contends the rule change reduces access to difficult-to-trace “burner” style high-end phones for criminal operations.
The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced on Monday a significant change to a 2007 phone unlocking rule, which it says has inadvertently aided criminal enterprises that wish to use higher-end devices as difficult-to-trace burner phones. According to the FCC, the nearly two-decade-old phone unlocking policy stipulates that Verizon phones—specifically—must become unlockable from the carrier no more than 60 days after activation. For other cellular carriers, their devices had to be configured so that consumers could unlock them after one year.
Federal officials contend that the significantly shorter unlocking timeline for Verizon—along with its acquisition of prepaid and no-contract mobile virtual network operator TracFone Wireless—created a perverse incentive for criminal elements to target Verizon stores to steal higher-end phones. “Sophisticated criminal networks have exploited the FCC’s handset unlocking policies to carry out criminal acts—including transnational handset trafficking schemes and facilitating broader criminal enterprises like drug running and human smuggling,” FCC Chairman Brendan Carr said regarding the updated FCC rule. He continued, “By waiving a regulation that incentivized bad actors to target one particular carrier’s handsets for theft, we now have a uniform industry standard that can help stem the flow of handsets into the black market.”
Under the new waiver order, Verizon will be brought into alignment with the Cellular Telephone Industries Association (CTIA) Consumer Code for Wireless Service, established in 2013. The FCC contends this will better help reduce drug cartels and other criminal operations’ access to unlocked and difficult-to-trace “burner” style phones.
“Due to its unique unlocking responsibility, Verizon’s unlocked handsets have too often been effectively stolen and resold on the black market, commanding premium prices on the dark web, particularly in countries like Russia, China, and Cuba,” the FCC contends, adding, “The record demonstrates that the 60-day device locking period is insufficient for the company to effectively detect fraud before unlocking takes place… Time and again, federal and state law enforcement has investigated and prosecuted transnational handset trafficking schemes, finding they facilitate broader criminal enterprises like drug and human smuggling.”
The move by the FCC comes as the Trump administration continues to ramp up operations against Central and South American drug cartels and criminal illegal immigrant gangs operating within the United States. Notably, Verizon supports the FCC action, with Kathy Grillo, Senior Vice President of Public Policy, stating, “The FCC’s action will end bad actors’ ability to exploit the FCC’s unlocking rules to profit from easier access to expensive, heavily-subsidized devices in the U.S. that they traffic and sell to other parts of the world.”
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