What is interesting is that this system basically exists to catch the most petty criminals, since the actual baddies do not use it at all. Bin Laden didn't have a cellphone. FBI only cracked the sinaloa cartel cellphone network by managing to flip its architect, not by their own technical expertise, their partnerships with telecoms, or any surveillance technology.

In fairness, almost all of this is pure conjecture aside from Bin Laden which has had documents and accounts on record released/declassified.

We don't actually know how these entities do certain things because they don't have credibility, and it is well known that they lie to protect tradecraft.