5 ms·

Drug dealer busted after picture of his hand holding cocaine showed fingerprints

7 points by shelfchair 5y ago

karmakaze 5y ago
> Even though the image didn’t include his fingertips, forensic specialists were able to pull data from the rest of his fingers and palm and match it to fingerprints on the national database How can lines on fingers and palm be matched with fingerprints?
- rsfern 5y ago
  I’m not sure about in the UK, but when I had prints taken in the US recently for a background check (my kid is in a coop preschool) they scanned the whole length of my fingers, so maybe they had partial data to match against?
- baash05 5y ago
  They may have had him in custody already and got a warrant to scan his whole hand.
- rosndo 5y ago
  When they arrested me they took palmprints (sides too!) with their fancy swiss fingerprinting machine they were very proud of.
baash05 5y ago
That might be my hand (not admitting it is), but that looks like frozen Greek yogurt. Unless of course they can test for the presence of drugs in the photo, I'm not sure why they wasted their time. Whats the chain of evidence on the substance in the photo?
- netsharc 5y ago
  I don't think the issue is the white stuff in the photo, he could be holding anything on the picture. The point is, through the picture they identified the person whose hand it was, used detective work to identify his gang, raided their properties, and found drugs... And why did they "waste their time"? Because probably their chat was discussing their drug trade...
- justsomehnguy 5y ago
  >Even though the image didn’t include his fingertips, forensic specialists were able to pull data from the rest of his fingers and palm and match it to fingerprints on the national database. Read TFA, please.
WastingMyTime89 5y ago
Every time I read one of this story about someone busted due to a half cropped blurry picture, I expect it is actually law enforcement covering the way they actually did it which might include something illegal or someone talking. I am not sure if it makes me a conspiracy theorist.
- bsder 5y ago
  Or just a propaganda piece. "See, we're on the dark web, too. Watch out!" Almost all good busts come from old fashioned, boots on the ground police investigation--usually with either an informant or an undercover investigator.
- rosndo 5y ago
  These pictures are sourced from darknet markets which usually let you access very high quality product pictures. The half cropped blurry picture has been mangled by the press, it’s not the original. I’ve seen a ton of product pictures while drug shopping that you could feasibly extract fingerprints from, definitely not surprised.

7 points by shelfchair 5y ago

> Even though the image didn’t include his fingertips, forensic specialists were able to pull data from the rest of his fingers and palm and match it to fingerprints on the national database How can lines on fingers and palm be matched with fingerprints?

rsfern 5y ago
I’m not sure about in the UK, but when I had prints taken in the US recently for a background check (my kid is in a coop preschool) they scanned the whole length of my fingers, so maybe they had partial data to match against?
baash05 5y ago
They may have had him in custody already and got a warrant to scan his whole hand.
rosndo 5y ago
When they arrested me they took palmprints (sides too!) with their fancy swiss fingerprinting machine they were very proud of.

baash05 5y ago

That might be my hand (not admitting it is), but that looks like frozen Greek yogurt. Unless of course they can test for the presence of drugs in the photo, I'm not sure why they wasted their time. Whats the chain of evidence on the substance in the photo?

netsharc 5y ago
I don't think the issue is the white stuff in the photo, he could be holding anything on the picture. The point is, through the picture they identified the person whose hand it was, used detective work to identify his gang, raided their properties, and found drugs... And why did they "waste their time"? Because probably their chat was discussing their drug trade...
justsomehnguy 5y ago
>Even though the image didn’t include his fingertips, forensic specialists were able to pull data from the rest of his fingers and palm and match it to fingerprints on the national database. Read TFA, please.

WastingMyTime89 5y ago

Every time I read one of this story about someone busted due to a half cropped blurry picture, I expect it is actually law enforcement covering the way they actually did it which might include something illegal or someone talking. I am not sure if it makes me a conspiracy theorist.

bsder 5y ago
Or just a propaganda piece. "See, we're on the dark web, too. Watch out!" Almost all good busts come from old fashioned, boots on the ground police investigation--usually with either an informant or an undercover investigator.
rosndo 5y ago
These pictures are sourced from darknet markets which usually let you access very high quality product pictures. The half cropped blurry picture has been mangled by the press, it’s not the original. I’ve seen a ton of product pictures while drug shopping that you could feasibly extract fingerprints from, definitely not surprised.