Rinson Jose, Man Tied to Lebanon's Exploding Pagers, Missing in US

Norwegian police have issued an international search warrant for Rinson Jose, a Norwegian-Indian man connected to the sale of pagers to Hezbollah that exploded across Lebanon last week.

Jose, 39, disappeared while on a work trip to Boston and has not been heard from since September 18.

Unni T. Grøndal, press chief for the Oslo police district, told Newsweek, "Oslo Police district has received a missing person report. It is being processed and possible measures are being assessed."

The Norwegian criminal police unit, KRIPOS, confirmed to Newsweek that an international search request had been sent. "The NCIS, the international point of contact for the Norwegian police, has circulated an Interpol Yellow (missing person) Diffusion at the request of Oslo Police District," senior adviser Axel Wilhelm Due said.

Newsweek has reached out via email to Interpol and Rinson Jose for comment.

Over two days last week, pagers and walkie-talkies used by Hezbollah operatives exploded across Lebanon, resulting in at least 39 deaths and thousands of injuries. While Israel has neither confirmed nor denied involvement, the attacks are believed to have been carried out by Israeli forces.

The devices, initially traced to the Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo, were reportedly licensed by Hungarian firm BAC Consulting and facilitated by Norta Global Ltd, a Bulgarian company founded by Rinson Jose.

The exact method by which the pagers were weaponized remains unclear. Investigators are trying to determine how and when the devices were weaponized as Bulgaria, Hungary, Taiwan, and Norway have all launched probes into the supply chain.

Norta Global Ltd is a company based in Sofia, Bulgaria, and according to Bulgaria's corporate registry, Jose established the company in 2022. Bulgarian authorities have investigated Norta Global's role in the supply of the booby-trapped pagers but have found no evidence that the devices were manufactured or exported from Bulgaria.

On September 19, Bulgarian state security agency DANS announced an investigation into a Bulgarian company's possible ties to the exploding pagers, though they did not name the company. Local media reports have identified Norta Global Ltd as the company in question.

BAC Consulting came under scrutiny when Taiwanese manufacturer Gold Apollo disclosed that it had authorized BAC Consulting to use its name on the pagers involved in the attacks. While Gold Apollo acknowledged the license agreement, it said that BAC Consulting was responsible for the actual manufacturing and design of the devices.

In statements made to the AP, the mother of BAC Consulting's CEO Cristiana Barsony-Arcidiacono said her daughter acted only as a broker and that the pagers never physically passed through Hungary. The Hungarian government stated that the devices were not produced in Hungary and that BAC Consulting had acted only as an intermediary.

Jose's Norwegian employer, DN Media Group, stated that he left for a conference in Boston on September 17, Reuters reported. He last contacted his colleagues via email on September 18 and has been unreachable since. "We have not been able to reach him since September 18," a spokesperson for DN Media Group said at the time.

When Reuters reached out to Jose on September 18, he declined to comment on the pagers and hung up when asked about his Bulgarian business. Subsequent calls and text messages went unanswered. Attempts to contact him on September 25 were redirected to an answering service, the news agency reported.

Previously living in Kerala, Rinson Jose is an Indian-born Norwegian citizen. He holds a Master's degree in Business Administration from Pondicherry University in India and a second Master's degree in International Social Welfare and Health Policy from Oslo Metropolitan University in Norway, which he completed in 2015.

Professionally, Jose has held several positions. In addition to working at DN Media Group since February 2020, most recently as Customer Journey & CRM Lead, he is listed on LinkedIn as the founder of NortaLink, an IT services, consulting, procurement, and recruiting company based in Oslo since 2016. Norta Global is not listed on his LinkedIn profile.

Update on 09/27/24 at 10:20 a.m.: This story has been updated with comment from KRIPOS.