South Wales Police have managed to convict 11 drug dealers thanks to fingerprints collected from a WhatsApp photo.
As part of the investigations, officers seized and examined a phone used by one of the suspects and discovered a photo sent on WhatsApp showing a male hand holding ecstasy tablets.
The police then compared the fingerprint on the photo with one of the suspects and determined that it was the same person. Subsequent investigations led to the arrest of ten more perpetrators.
After carefully inspecting the phone, which was apparently not password-protected, police found numerous messages that proved the user's involvement in drug sales.
South Wales Police claim that examining evidence found on a mobile device is proving to be one of the most effective methods of conducting an investigation.
And while examining data from a mobile device is a significant help to investigators, it is only possible when the devices are not encrypted. Password-protected devices are a concern in the United States as the FBI cannot extract the information it needs.
The FBI has reportedly asked companies like Apple to help crack device passwords, but so far all requests have been rejected outright.
