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By Greg Bartlett

In monitoring and executing justice on the vast underworld of drugs, police have an enormous job cut out for themselves. Addicts’ lust for drugs and drug dealers’ greed for money and power propel them in their pursuit of this criminal activity. Law enforcement are virtually guaranteed to always have work to do in this area. Advances in technology are providing police greater success in identifying persons responsible for possessing and trafficking illegal drugs. One such advancement has been made possible through GPS tracking.

GPS is an acronym for Global Positioning System and is a result of the World War II technology of the 1940’s. Since the 1980’s GPS technology has been available to the public and has fathered the technological conveniences of GPS navigation and GPS tracking that are common-place items for many twenty-first-century people. GPS tracking, in particular, has been adopted into many different vocational fields, simplifying major – if not otherwise impossible – tasks and increasing the speed and accuracy of important projects. From law enforcement procedures to major medical surgeries, GPS tracking has dramatically influenced – indeed improved – how the world is run today.

GPS tracking proved itself invaluable once again on August 17, 2009. Local Massachusetts police, suspicious of a wooden crate found in storage, were granted a search warrant and discovered, through field tests, what they had suspected: marijuana (also known as pot). This crate contained 360 pounds of marijuana (worth about $700,000). By placing a GPS tracking device inside the crate and monitoring the site, the police were led to three men involved, who were subsequently arrested and charged for their criminal behavior. GPS tracking, once again, helped save the day.