We've all been awakened to the possibilities of science to solve murders on TV, but sometimes even the most obscure scientific disciplines becomes invaluable to an international criminal case involving intrigue, espionage and, of course, drugs.
INTERPOL had been trying to catch a gang that made millions selling fake malaria drugs all over Asia for years, but they were only able to crack the case with the help of forensic palynologists, who analyze pollen. The palynologists found trace amounts of pollen indigenous to a very specific region in China in the air pockets of the blisterpacks of artesunate, a common malaria treatment. They backed up their claim by also detecting calcite specific to this same region in southern China.
With scientific evidence to back them up, Johnny Law swooped in to arrest a suspect in China's Yunnan Province in 2006:
He is alleged to have traded 240,000 blisterpacks of counterfeit artesunate, enough to "treat" almost a quarter of a million adults with a medicine with no activity against a potentially fatal disease. Whilst the Chinese authorities were able to seize 24,000 of these packs, the remainder are alleged to have been sold at crossings on the border of Yunnan and Myanmar (Burma), accounting for almost a half of all blisterpacks of artesunate sold to the region.
Continue reading 'Move over, CSI: Pollen detectives help bust counterfeit malaria drug runners' >
