As we are all painfully aware, when the drug dog alerts, the cops have probable cause. Yes, yes, the dogs are imperfect, but the decisions abound and now it’s just another piece of quasi-junk science that has become part of the law enforcement myth.
But Fox News reports that American paper money has more cocaine residue on it than the cash of any other country.
Paper money contains high traces of cocaine, regardless of whether or not the paper money came into direct contact with the drug. U.S. bills take the top spot, covered in the greatest amount of the illegal powder, while euro notes issued in Spain are the most highly contaminated in Europe, a new study finds.
“These findings should not be surprising, because cocaine and other drugs are traded using cash, which is handled by the same fingers that directly touch the drugs or wrappings,” chemists Sergio Armenta and Miguel de la Guardia from the University of Valencia in Spain write. “Moreover, many cocaine users use a wrapped banknote to sniff this drug, so inducing direct cocaine contamination of the banknotes.”
It’s not like you need to be a scientist to figure this out, though not a single DEA agent, as far as I’m aware, has yet to testify that cocaine residue on a $100 bill might possibly come from any source other than the defendant in the courtroom. Go figure.
The kicker to this study is that U.S. bills are more contaminated than those of any other country. Do we have more cokeheads than the others? Apparently so, according to the research. As noted by The Asylum, this means were not only the fattest country in the world, but the dopest as well. We are number 1! Woo hoo! But there is an inherent anomaly:
So, if you’re scoring at home, fill in the U.S. for both the fattest and the most coked up nation on Earth. Given coke’s appetite-suppressing qualities, it sounds as though we’re just not getting enough cocaine to the right people.
There you are, the real drug problem in America is that the people who really need to lose weight aren’t getting enough coke. Yes, I’m being facetious.
In the meantime, this reminds us of the meaninglessness of dog alerts, as well as the residue findings in the lab reports, that are used to craft a case against defendants when the cops come up empty on real evidence.
I’ve always wanted to do a courtroom demonstration, with the drug dog tested to sniff out the coked-up money. Ask the judge to contribute whatever currency he’s got on him, as well as the jurors, and then have the dog do his thing. My bet is that the dog will alert to at least half the tests packages.
I’ve yet to find any judge foolish enough to let me try this out. I don’t expect I ever will.
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I’ve heard of people being arrested for “residue,” but I’ve always wondered what happens next. What does the case against them look like? Are they prosecuted for possession of the residue dispite the difficulty proving knowledge of the residue? Is there some sort of magic formula like residue+cash=drug smuggler? Is that just an excuse to get warrants for other stuff?
Pocket cash with coke residue is rarely used as the actual basis for an arrest, unless there’s enough on there to see it. Where it’s particularly pernicious is its use to establish probable cause for a search, leading to finding something else.
I do not see where these tests are really a problem within the criminal justice system. Some of these scientific tests that are telling us about all this drug contaminated U.S. currency are talking in terms of micrograms and nanograms on the bills. That is 1-millionth and 1-billionth of a gram respectively. I think I can safely say those amounts are probably not visible to the human eye and I am not so sure that a narc dog would be able to detect a scent from a bill with that amount of residue on it. Maybe someone is aware of some scientific testing to determine what amount of a specific drug it takes to leave a scent on a bill for the average narc dog to alert to the bill.
There are “good” narc dogs and handlers out there and there are “bad” narc dogs and handlers out there. And there is nothing worse than getting a search warrant based on a dog alert and then not finding any drugs or drug related evidence. Since handlers normally keep training records and records of alerts and results for certification and court purposes. This information is normally contained in most federal search warrants and legal counsel can always challenge the credibility of a dog and its handler. Having worked narcotics in the Southern District of Florida during the height of its cocaine days, I know a Federal Magistrate in the District that would not accept the alert of a certain “local” narc dog as the basis of the “probable” cause for issuing a search warrant because of the number of “bad” alerts that this dog had. I am sure that there are many judges and magistrates throughout the country that will not issue a warrant based “solely” on the alert of a narc dog. Normally, there are other circumstances that are needed in order to build up to the standard of “probable cause”.
And I would be very tempted to take you up on your bet about the money of the judge and the jury!
As you know, no one calls for the dog unless they want to search in the first place and they are looking for probable cause, so they already have someone they think has drugs. Now the trace amounts of residue on currency aren’t going to cause an alert every time, but if it happens 5 times in 100, that’s enough. And add bills together, the the micrograms add up as well, so while 1 bill may not do it, 100 may very well be enough.
As for good and bad dogs and handlers, that’s absolutely correct. But I’ve never seen a judge who has enough experience with a particular dog that he rejects it for the warrant or, as is most often the case, suppresses a car search (which will be done without a warrant under the automobile exception).
It may not be common but many years ago I had a Federal Magistrate sitting in West Palm Beach instruct me to find another narc dog as she would not issue a search warrant based on an alert from a certain dog in the Broward/Palm Beach/Martin County area, so it can happen.
Cocaine Residue Conundrum Goes International
Bookmarked your post over at Blog Bookmarker.com!