Applied DNA Sciences, a provider of DNA-based security, anti-counterfeiting technology, law-enforcement and product-authentication solutions announced today that its anti-crime technology has played a key role in the dismantling of a major drug ring in the United Kingdom, where eleven drug cartel members were sentenced to a total of 31 years in prison. A massive police operation, conducted over a period of three years, resulted in seizures totaling more than $400,000 of cocaine, heroin and cannabis, along with nearly $75,000 in cash. Codenamed Operation Betula, the police work culminated late last December in the sentencing of the cartel leader, where an important part of the evidence was anti-crime technology.
Operation Betula (betula comes from the Latin for birch tree) began during 2009 in the city of Gloucester, in the center of England, but soon spread to London, Somerset and South Wales, as a major drug distribution network was gradually uncovered.
The APDN product became a major piece in a case that, in the words of the sentencing judge was an especially “difficult case to investigate and bring to trial.” Judge Horton, noted that “defendants were sophisticated, devious and experienced professional criminals who had above average skills in anti-surveillance, and had developed a commercial dealing network which was both efficient and well concealed.”
But anti-crime technology assisted police in providing irrefutable evidence to bring these criminals to justice.
Ati-crime technology marks cash, and often the criminals themselves, when a cash-carrying strongbox is forced open and the DNA carrier is automatically sprayed. The unique DNA marker irrevocably associates the cash, or the offender, with the crime. The DNA is exceptionally resilient and can last for years on cash notes and clothing. On skin, the DNA marks also resist removal.
A breakthrough occurred when the house of the cartel leader, Leslie Jenkins, was raided, and more than $15,000 in cash was seized, even while Jenkins was caught attempting to dispose of a stash of cocaine. The cash was tested for APDN's anti-crime technology and found to consist of notes stolen in an earlier cash-in-transit robbery that had taken place in Liverpool. Jenkins' role was to launder the stolen money, and he subsequently pleaded guilty to money laundering in June 2011. He was sentenced to eleven years in prison during the December court session.
Most of the other ten convicted cartel members also pleaded guilty. Dr. James Hayward, APDN CEO and President, stated: “Our technologies are being used to obtain convictions in major crimes throughout Europe and now the US. In cases like this, where sophisticated criminals can be difficult to find and convict, our anti-crime technology makes a watertight case. It proves legally and without doubt that the criminal is linked to a specific crime.