Tuesday saw President Donald Trump deliver an address to the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in which he criticized the global body for failing to end wars and combat illegal migration.

Yet Trump's speech wasn't the only reason why the UN was in the news this week, as the Secret Service also prevented a potential emergency centered on the international institution.  

SIM network had the ability to overwhelm emergency response systems

According to Newsmax, the Secret Service has uncovered a large-scale hidden telecom network clustered around the United Nations Headquarters in New York City.

The federal agency alleges that the network was capable of overwhelming cell towers, blocking 911 calls, and thwarting New York's emergency services system.

Investigators are said to have found 300 SIM servers which were equipped with more than 100,000 SIM cards located in multiple sites.

The servers could operate like fake cell phones, with the ability to generate a massive number of fraudulent calls and text messages.

Newsmax noted how that discovery was made during the course of a broader investigation being carried out by the Secret Service of telecommunications threats.

Special agent in charge: "It could be catastrophic to the city"

Matt McCool serves as special agent in charge of the Secret Service's New York field office, and he was quoted as saying, "It can't be understated what this system is capable of doing."

"It can take down cell towers, so then no longer can people communicate, right? .... You can't text message, you can't use your cell phone," he continued.

"And if you coupled that with some sort of other event associated with UNGA, you know, use your imagination there, it could be catastrophic to the city," the law enforcement official pointed out.

He noted that the system was apparently being used by state actors to interface with organized crime groups, drug cartels, or terrorist cells.

Secret Service director says threat "cannot be overstated"

"We need to do forensics on 100,000 cell phones, essentially all the phone calls, all the text messages, anything to do with communications, see where those numbers end up," McCool stressed.

U.S. Secret Service Director Sean Curran sounded a similar note in a statement released by the agency, asserting, "The potential for disruption to our country’s telecommunications posed by this network of devices cannot be overstated."

"The U.S. Secret Service’s protective mission is all about prevention, and this investigation makes it clear to potential bad actors that imminent threats to our protectees will be immediately investigated, tracked down and dismantled," he declared.