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How do they legally get from "it's his hand holding the cheese" to "he's the true source of all the bravado in this nefarious forum" to "he's a drug dealer"? I
by chiefalchemist 5y ago
How do they legally get from "it's his hand holding the cheese" to "he's the true source of all the bravado in this nefarious forum" to "he's a drug dealer"?
If all they needed was a fingerprint, certainly there are more convenient ways to go about it. He's got to touch something other than his product.
This smells more like a false narrative contructed to cover up the actual source / methods for cornering him. Maybe law enforcement had someone on the inside? And still does? Or a loyal flunkie turned on him? But holding cheese? (Note: I'm aware this is technically possible. I'm questioning it's use in ths case.)
Much like the news stories of "car stopped on interstate and police find _____ amount of ______ in the trunk." Right. Of all the cars traveling the police randomly pick the car filled with drugs? Sounds great. But too random too often to be legit. They knew which car to stop but they're not going to say how they knew.
- mannykannot 5y agoThe police could have had his prints from his merchandise, or an entirely separate issue, with no idea that they matched a certain until-then anonymous drug dealer known only for his posts on EncroChat.
- chiefalchemist 5y agoSo they have drug product with prints. They match those to the hand / fingers holding the cheese. Presuming the EncroChat is anonymous, how do they then tie that to the person arrested? Where and how does that happen?
- IneffablePigeon 5y agoI suspect it's the other way - they have his prints on file already from some previous arrest, and the image linked the incriminating EncroChat account to his real identity through the data already on file.
- mannykannot 5y agoYou are right, under the assumption of anonymity, that alternative does not work. Prints on file for a different reason, such as a prior conviction, would give you an ID. According to a link from the article, however, EncroChat was cracked last year. Stewart was presumably not one of those arrested at that time, which implies that either this crack did not yield enough information to ID him, or did not yield enough evidence to proceed against him. The former case could be solved if his prints were on file, and in the latter case, his prints might have led to additional evidence which had previously not been attributed to him. As the article says he was identified by his prints, the former seems much more likely.
- the_doctah 5y agoThe article states that EncroChat has been cracked by police. It's not anonymous.