A Strong Security Portfolio: Slashing Cash Crimes in the UK

DNA is trusted by police and recognized by courts globally. No other form of evidence has withstood such scrutiny. Expert Witness Statements prove that DNA evidence can positively trace stained evidence to the source.

• For the first quarter of 2010, relative to the first quarter of 2009, our UK CViT customers indicated that cash attacks were down 55% and cash losses down 72%
• The elimination of a single CViT attack would pay for the cost of our program
• In fact, over 100 crimes were avoided. Both customers attribute the decrease to “Deterrence by DNA”
• The return on their investment in SigNature DNA has been extraordinary
• approximately 1,100 CViT boxes protected  
• 91 police submissions
• 35 cases where the Applied DNA taggant was identified
• 57 convictions obtained
• 252 sentence years where SigNature DNA has been used as evidence

Cash-in-transit businesses transport and store cash and ATM cassettes. In the U.K. alone, there is an estimated £500 billion being transported each year, or £1.4 billion per day. The nature of this business makes cash-in-transit an attractive target for criminals and as a result the industry invests in excess of £100 million per year in security equipment and devices. The incidence of cash-in-transit based crime has increased over 170% in London since 2006, according to the Metropolitan Police. Governments and banks today face the real challenge of staying ahead of increasingly sophisticated counterfeiting without sacrificing security features and banknote longevity to costs.

Currently, a system of cash degradation, using a smoke or liquid dye to permanently mark and essentially destroy stolen cash, is used. For our customers, SigNature DNA is included in the transport devices that discharge an intense liquid dye onto currency when the transport box is illegally accessed or moved outside of a predetermined location. The dye renders the currency easily recognized as stolen in a process known as “cash degradation. Prior to the use of SigNature DNA, when banks identify dye-degraded currency, it was simply removed from circulation without attribution to its original owner. SigNature DNA markers allow attribution of the cash, since each transport box using our system has an individualized SigNature DNA sequence. In addition to working with the companies that transport the cash boxes, we have begun to work with and train police forces throughout Europe to better enable them to identify and properly handle the DNA marked cash for use in criminal prosecution.

Loomis chose to use SigNature DNA because it offers far superior qualities in comparison to other taggants. Loomis won an award for its use of SigNature DNA from the International Association of Currency Affairs at their recent conference in Prague for “Best New Product, Process or Currency System.”

DNA taggants are the most advanced and secure technology available to the printing and packaging industries to combat counterfeit products. APDN’s SigNature® DNA taggants offer a high level of security and flexibility in a cost-effective and easy-to-use format to suit the requirements and budget of any company.  

Document Security

The forging of passports and identity documents poses a grave threat to national security. Forged documents enable identity theft and provide a means for terrorists to cross borders. Six of the nineteen suicide bombers involved in the 9/11 attacks were traveling on forged passports and government authorities believe that there is an Al Qaeda unit devoted to creating forged identity documents. In May 2009, British authorities arrested two men charged with forging thousands of European passports.

A PBS Frontline story from 2001 illustrates the worst case scenario of this problem. It details how terrorists are specifically trained to use counterfeit documents to move across borders. The story states that using counterfeit documents is part of the security training of Al Qaeda operatives. This story also states that the terrorists affiliate themselves with organized criminal syndicates that smuggle humans and provide counterfeit documents to accomplish this. Counterfeit documents enable the rest of the illegal activity to occur, which makes them a weapon that could be a lot more dangerous than an assault rifle, IED or RPG violence.

Packaging and Labels

The scourge of counterfeiting in packaging has greatly intensified in recent years. Counterfeiting has spiked, causing detrimental health concerns for consumers, safety concerns for law enforcement agencies, and financial concerns for businesses worldwide. As a result, the global anti counterfeit packaging market will reach about $82.2 billion by the year 2015, according to California-based Global Industry Analysts Inc.An agreement between Applied DNA and Disc Graphics (DISC), an innovative and agile packaging and label company, points out the value of DNA counterfeit protection to the packaging industry.

Comments Margaret Krumholz, President of DISC:

“This agreement leverages DISC’s broad customer base of high value brands and offers us a leading edge, forensic anti-counterfeit solution to combat the growing problem of counterfeit and grey market goods entering the supply and distribution chain.  

Packaging is on the front line of fighting counterfeiters and we are excited to make DNA an integral part of our overarching package security program. Our core customers including major film studios, pharmaceutical manufacturers, fragrance and luxury brand companies all experience market erosion from counterfeit products and are searching for weapons to battle this multi-billion dollar problem.”