A drug traffic, suspects, cell phones and erased data… but not erased for the IGNA experts.
Four individuals, already well known to the police, were arrested as part of a drug traffic case, but not caught in the act. The incriminated individuals denied the facts. The judge decided to have their cell phones analyzed, as they were under grave suspicion. Simultaneously, he seized the cell phone carriers in order to establish an indisputable link between the cell phones and the physical persons.
Erased, but not lost
A first difficulty lay in the fact that all data had been erased: no trace of SMS or phone conversations, not even a list of contacts, was found in the phones. Moreover, two of the smartphones were off and their batteries were flat, but, fortunately, they had not been broken into several pieces. Smartphones –these so-called intelligent phones allowing in particular to consult mails, get the Internet and serve as a GPS device… – are in fact true computers equipped with an operating system, an internal memory, often an external memory, and a SIM card. One after the other, each module of the four cell phones was then analyzed. It took the experts one month to conduct their investigation work which ultimately proved to be quite fruitful.
Reconstructing the scenario
And so, the erasing of evidence by the users was not definitive: by analyzing data, it was possible to reconstruct the exchange scenarios between clients and dealers as well as their routes and meeting places by making the most of the GPSstored data, the quantities of drug, the negotiations on the price of the stuff, the role of each incriminated individual, along with the precise dates and hours. In the face of such evidence, coupled with other pieces of evidence, the four individuals were forced to own up to what they had done.
Point of view Charles Frioux, data processing and digital media expert
Computer data analysis plays a more and more important part in legal procedures because our daily life has become widely penetrated by tools such as digital cameras and camcorders, desktop orlaptop computers, cell phones, GPS devices, Internet boxes… Computer data analysis is also part of an overall service offer which includes DNA and fingerprint analysis, thus reinforcing administrative and logistical simplicity and, above all, evidence preservation.
From IGNA – Newletter February 2011