The Hampden County District Attorney's Office announced Tuesday that they've received more than $285,000 worth of equipment and software, donated by the Massachusetts National Guard Counterdrug Program. The equipment includes tools for analyzing drugs, as well as data forensics.
The DA's office and State police will now have access to private software that specializes in unlocking cell phones, then extracting and cloning their data. This includes GrayKey, a product by Magnet Forensics which advertises being able to access a locked phone in under an hour. Another software included in this donation is Cellebrite, which alongside cellphone hacking, is also able to extract data from cloud storage solutions. It was not made immediately clear what aspects of Cellebrite were donated, as parts of the software are packaged individually.
At a press conference, DA Anthony Gulluni said these tools will help police in their efforts to stem drug trafficking in the region.
”These new tools provided by Guard enhance, and advance the work of these troopers and will enable them to be more effective, more efficient, and themselves, safer,” he said.
The DA’s office also highlighted donated drug analysis tools including TruNarc, a handheld scanner that can identify the presence of narcotics, and the MX908 handheld spectrometer which can detect not only drugs, but also explosive and hazmat material.
Also included in this donation was a ‘Backscatter’ X-ray manufactured by Rapiscan, which uses advanced x-ray technology to find hidden weapons, tools, or contraband. It’s the same technology used by the Transportation Service Authority for scanning luggage
The Counterdrug program that supplied these donations is a partnership between local, state, and federal law enforcement agencies that the Hampden DA’s office entered in 2015. It’s also supported by the New England High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area, a coalition of law enforcement agencies including the FBI and Department of Homeland Security, which facilitate law enforcement partnerships to combat drug trafficking.
