Drug residue can be detected in fingerprints left at crime scenes

Forensic scientists have developed a new technique that can detect drug and explosive residue on fingerprint samples from crime scenes.

“That information, the presence of drug particles, is an almost untapped resource,” says James Reynolds at Loughborough University in the UK. That is because investigators use thin gelatine layers, called gel lifters, to lift fingerprints. These introduce chemicals to samples, making it difficult to identify trace amounts of drugs or explosives on them.

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