Image credit – South Wales Police
Thanks to technology getting more advanced, we’re starting to see criminals turn to the use of said technology to further their criminal activities, discovering new means of reaching out to customers, and also means of evading the authorities. However in a report from the BBC, it seems that the police are warming up to their tricks.
In fact police in South Wales have recently managed to arrest a drug dealer based on fingerprints found in a WhatsApp photo. This is said to be the first convictions in Wales based on fingerprints taken from a photograph. Based on their success, police will now be looking more closely at photographs on phones seized for potential evidence.
Basically what happened was that a drug dealer was using WhatsApp to reach out to potential customers. There was also a photo sent to customers that showed a palm holding a small bag of drugs, but police officers were quick to discover that the palm also exposed parts of the suspect’s fingers.
Unfortunately the photo was not enough as the police were only able to get partial prints, but not enough for a match in the system. However it was enough to be used together with other bits of information, ultimately leading them to the drug dealer himself. According to South Wales Police’s scientific support unit’s Dave Thomas, “While the scale and quality of the photograph proved a challenge, the small bits were enough to prove he was the dealer. It has now opened the floodgates and when there is part of a hand on a photograph, officers are sending them in.”