GT200

The GT200 is a fraudulent " remote substance detector" that was claimed by its manufacturer, UK-based Global Technical Ltd, to be able to detect, from a distance, various substances including explosives and drugs. The GT200 was sold to a number of countries for a cost of up to £22,000 per unit, but the device has been described as little more than "divining rods" which lack any scientific explanation for why they should work. Also available fro

After the similar ADE 651 was exposed as a fraud, the UK Government banned the export of such devices to Iraq and Afghanistan in January 2010 and warned foreign governments that the GT200 and ADE 651 are "wholly ineffective" at detecting bombs and explosives. The owner of Global Technical, Gary Bolton, was convicted on 26 July 2013 on two charges of fraud relating to the sale and manufacture of the GT200 and sentenced to seven years in prison.

Description and background

The GT200 consists of three main components—a swivelling antenna mounted via a hinge to a plastic handgrip, into which "sensor cards" can be inserted. It requires no battery or other power source and is said to be powered solely by the user's static electricity. The device becomes active when the operator starts moving and detects various substances via "DIA/PARA magnetism". It is made by Global Technical Ltd of Ashford, Kent. The company (registered number 03300333) was established as a private limited company on 9 January 1997 with Gary Bolton as director. A number of overseas partners including Segtec, Napco, Nikunj Eximp Enterprises, Electronic K9 Singapore, Aviasatcom and Concord Consulting have distributed its products in Central America, the Middle East, India, Southeast Asia and Thailand respectively. Global Technical also had a sister company, Global Technical Training Services Ltd (registered company 03793910), which was established on 23 June 1999 but is now dissolved.

Promotional material issued about the GT200 claims that it can detect a wide variety of items including ammunition, explosives, drugs, gold, ivory, currency, tobacco and "human bodies" at ranges of up to on the surface, depths of up to underground or under of water, or even from aircraft at an altitude of up to . A "Substance Sensor Card" inserted into the device is said to create an "attracting field" utilising "dia/para magnetism" between the device and the substance that is to be detected. The field is claimed to make the antenna of the GT200 lock onto a signal, indicating the direction in which the substance can be located. According to the promotional material, if the device is used correctly, it "can detect substance(s) through walls, (even lead-lined and metal ones), water, (fresh and salted), fresh and frozen food, (fish, fruit, tea, coffee, ice), vacuum flask, containers, petrol and diesel fuel and even buried in the earth" and can detect narcotics for up to two weeks after they have been ingested by a target individual.

According to the Thai newspaper ''The Nation'', the GT200 is "just a new name" for a previous Global Technical product, the MOLE programmable substance detection system. It operated in the same way as the GT200, using a swinging antenna to point to a target material indicated via "programmable cards" inserted into a reader. The MOLE was tested in the United States in 2002 by Sandia National Laboratories but was found to perform no better than random chance. According to the Sandia report, the MOLE appears "physically nearly identical" to a product Sandia examined in October 1995 called the Quadro Tracker, which was marketed by a South Carolina company but which was banned in 1996 and the makers prosecuted for fraud.

A ''BBC Newsnight'' television investigation of the GT200 in January 2010 found that the "sensor card" consisted only of two sheets of card between which was sandwiched a sheet of paper, white on one side and black on the other, that had been cut off from a larger sheet with a knife or scissors. It contained no electronic components whatsoever. When the device's case was dismantled, it too was found to contain no electronic components. Explosives expert Sidney Alford told Newsnight: "Speaking as a professional, I would say that is an empty plastic case." Gary Bolton of Global Technical said that the lack of any electronic parts "does not mean it does not operate to the specification."

A GT200 unit was examined on Thailand's Nation Channel in an interview with Lt Col Somchai Chalermsuksan of the Thai Central Institute of Forensic Science. The host commented that "there is no battery here or way of powering it" and that the bottom half of the device was completely empty. Asked if there was anything in the sealed top half of the device, Lt Col Somchai said: "There is nothing. Once there was an accident and the device came apart. There was nothing inside." The host concluded: "So it is just two pieces of plastic put together."

Export ban, police investigation and criminal charges

Following controversy over a similar device, the ADE 651, the UK Government issued an order under the Export Control Act 2002 that came into force on 27 January 2010, banning the export to Iraq and Afghanistan of "'electro-statically powered' equipment for detecting 'explosives'", on the grounds that such equipment "could cause harm to UK and other friendly forces". The export ban covers all such devices, including the GT200.

Officers from the City of London Police Overseas Anti-Corruption Unit subsequently raided the offices of Global Technical and two other makers of similar "bomb detectors". A large amount of cash and several hundred of the devices and their component parts were seized. The police said that they were investigating on suspicion of fraud by false representation and were also investigating whether bribes had been paid to secure contracts to supply the devices.

On 27 February 2011 the British government told BBC Newsnight that it had helped Global Technical sell the GT200 around the world between 2001 and 2004. Royal Engineers sales teams demonstrated the devices at arms fairs and the UK Department of Trade and Industry helped two companies sell the GT200 and similar products in Mexico and the Philippines. On 12 July 2012, Andrew Penhale, Deputy Head of the Crown Prosecution Service's Central Fraud Division, authorised charges against six individuals, including Gary Bolton, for the manufacture, promotion and sale of a range of fraudulent substance detector devices. Bolton was formally charged at the City of London Magistrates' Court on 19 July with one count of fraud by false representation and one count of making or supplying an item for use in fraud between January and July 2012, and pleaded not guilty to both charges. Bolton was convicted on 26 July 2013 at The Old Bailey and released on bail pending sentence. Bolton was subsequently sentenced to 7 years Imprisonment on 20 August 2013. Bolton was also ordered to pay over £1.25 million to prevent seven additional years of imprisonment. Bolton reportedly made £45 million selling the fraudulent devices.

Users

Thailand

The GT200 was used extensively in Thailand. Reportedly, over 800 GT200 units were procured by Thai public bodies since 2004; these include the Royal Thai Army's purchase of 535 units for combating the South Thailand insurgency and another 222 units for use in other areas, the Royal Thai Police's purchase of 50 units for use in Police Region 4 (Khon Kaen), 6 units acquired by the Central Institute of Forensic Science and an equal number acquired by the Customs Department, the Royal Thai Air Force's purchase of 4 units, and the single unit acquired by the Chai Nat police. Other agencies, such as the Border Patrol Police Bureau and the Office of the Narcotics Control Board, use a similar Alpha 6 from the company detect drugs. According to the '' Bangkok Post'', the first to procure the GT200 was the Royal Thai Air Force, in 2006, for purposes of detecting explosives and drugs at airports; the next was the Royal Thai Army. According to Lt Gen Daopong Rattansuwan, the Deputy Chief of Staff of the Royal Thai Army, each GT200 bought by the army cost 900,000 baht (£17,000/US$27,000), rising to 1.2 million baht (£22,000/US$36,000) if 21 "sensor cards" were included with it. In total, Thailand's government and security forces have spent between 800 and 900 million baht (US$21 million) on the devices. Figures updated in 2016 claim that the Thai government spent 1.4 billion baht on the purchase of 1,358 devices between 2006 and 2010. Even after the efficacy of the device was debunked by Thai and foreign scientists, Prime Minister Prayut Chan-o-cha, then army chief, declared, "I affirm that the device is still effective." The ''Bangkok Post'' commented that, "The GT200 case was a unique scandal because the devices...seemed to fool only the people closely connected to their sale and purchase."

In total, 14 government agencies were duped into buying GT200s: the Central Institute of Forensic Science; Royal Thai Army Ordnance Department; Customs Department; Provincial Administration Department; Royal Thai Aide-De-Camp Department; Provincial Police of Sing Buri and Chai Nat; Songkhla Provincial Administration; Royal Thai Navy Security Centre; and five provinces: Phitsanulok, Phetchaburi, Phuket, Yala, and Sukhothai.

The head of Ava Satcom Ltd., the Thai company that sold eight GT200 devices to the Royal Thai Aide-De-Camp Department in 2008, was sentenced in September 2018 to nine years in prison and fined 18,000 baht. The purchase cost the government more than nine million baht. The week previously a court had sentenced him to 10 years in prison for selling GT200 devices to the army for 600 million baht. The judgements will be appealed on the grounds that the GT200s were imported on the orders of the military. The defense claims that army officers approached Ava Satcom with instructions, and specific specifications to buy, import, and resell 535 GT200s to the army. The military men involved have never been censured for their obvious gullibility and possible wrongdoing.

Mexico

The device was widely used in Mexico, where it was jokingly called "The devil's Ouija" (Spanish: La Ouija del diablo), as security forces ineffectively used it in an attempt combat drug traffickers and to search for explosives.

The Mexican government has spent over 340 million pesos (US$27 million) buying GT200s at a cost of 286,000 pesos (US$22,000) each. According to the government of Guanajuato state, the federal government has bought more than 700 GT200s. State governments have also bought their own GT200s; the device is reported to be in use by police in the Mexican states of Tabasco, Sonora, Sinaloa, Durango, Michoacán and Baja California. The Mexican military also utilises the GT200. In 2008 the Secretariat of National Defense had purchased 300 GT200s for use throughout the country, including at 133 strategic locations. By late 2009 the figure had increased to 521 GT200s, which had been deployed to 11 strategic checkpoints and 284 regional control stations around the country. In the violence-wracked city of Ciudad Juárez, the newspaper ''Excélsior'' reported that "military squads roam the streets and go from house to house, using a molecular detector known as GT200" to find weapons, drugs and money. Prison personnel in Juárez and its parent state, Chihuahua, have been provided with GT200s to detect escape tunnels being dug by prisoners.

African states

The device is used to detect smuggled ivory in the central African states of Zambia, Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania and the Republic of the Congo. The Lusaka Agreement Task Force (LATF) and the United Nations Environment Programme bought 15 GT200s in 2005 at a cost of $5,000 each and distributed them to the five LATF member states. In Uganda, the GT200s were installed at Entebbe International Airport, border crossings and internal checkpoints. A report submitted by Kenya to the CITES Standing Committee in 2006 stated that "three staffs from Tanzania were trained on the use of GT 200 Ivory Detector for the purposes of law enforcement against illegal dealing in ivory products, in the country. Four (4) Ivory Detectors are currently in place and are used for law enforcement activities especially at entry and exit points."

Elsewhere

The GT200 has been demonstrated in India for organisations including the Central Reserve Police Force, Indo-Tibetan Border Police, National Security Guards, Narcotics Control Bureau and the Bureau of Civil Aviation Security and was procured by the Dubai Customs in 2009. Hotels in Manila in the Philippines use it to detect bombs. It is also in use in Lebanon, Jordan and China.

Controversy over use

Thailand

The effectiveness of the GT200 has been the subject of controversy in Thailand, where the device has been reported to have been implicated in several deaths when it failed to detect improvised explosive devices which detonated, killing civilians and personnel from the security forces.

Three members of a border patrol police unit were killed on 7 November 2008 in Panare District when the GT200 they were using failed to detect a bomb planted on a road. In the Mueang Yala District of Yala Province, security forces used a GT200 to investigate the scene of the murder of two officials, but were unable to detect a follow-up boobytrap bomb, which exploded just after they had declared the area to be clear of bombs.

Numerous people were killed and injured in two bomb attacks in October 2009 in which the GT200 was used by security forces. On 6 October 2009, a car bomb exploded opposite the Merlin Hotel in Su-ngai Kolok, killing one person and injuring 20, after it had been "scanned" using a GT200 and declared to be free of explosives. A motorcycle bomb exploded on 19 October in Yala, injuring another 26 people, again after a scan with a GT200 had returned negative results for explosives.

False positives have also been reported, with civilians being arrested after a GT200 "detected" traces of explosives on them. Similar erroneous readings were reported to have caused "pandemonium" at Pattani Hospital. On one occasion the device was reported to have "incriminated the top of a coconut tree", though it was said the alert turned out to have been triggered by a plastic bag with vegetable oil inside. Thai journalist Charoon Thongnual reported personally experiencing the GT200 showing false positives:

The ''Bangkok Post'' reported on a Thai army field training session using the GT200 near Yala city in November 2009, in which a bomb squad using GT200 devices repeatedly failed to detect explosives:

Hundreds of people are said to have been detained by Thai security forces on the basis of GT200 readings. According to Human Rights Watch, about 10 percent of those detained on suspicion of involvement in the insurgency have been arrested on this basis. In one village in Narathiwat Province, 32 people were arrested after GT200s were used to "detect" traces of explosive substances on their bodies. Most of them were detained without charge for an extended period. Brad Adams of Human Rights Watch commented: "It is common during security sweeps in the south to see Muslim men lined up on the roadside with their shirts off while being screened by a GT200. Many of those implicated by the GT200 have been arrested and then tortured."

The Working Group on Justice for Peace, a Thai non-governmental human rights organisation, published an article in November 2009 that was strongly critical of the GT200: "The operation of the device is causing a lot of suspicion among scientists in Thailand for several reasons. According to them, the procedure of finding suspicious objects is not based on a reliable scientific method. Besides, GT200 is not being used by credible international organisations."

Government response

Concerns were raised by some within the Thai establishment. General Pathomphong Kasornsuk, the former chief advisor of the Supreme Command, urged Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva to investigate the procurement scheme for the GT200 devices and other elements of the counter-insurgency campaign in southern Thailand. Jetsada Denduangboripan, a scientist at Chulalongkorn University, told a committee of the House of Representatives of Thailand in January 2010 that "The GT200 cannot detect explosives. It is not scientific equipment. It works on the users' hunch. It is similar to a wood stick that people used to detect dead bodies buried in a cemetery." He used a set of pliers, a radio antenna and a piece of paper to produce a "bomb detector" that he said worked just as effectively as the GT200. The House committee on national security said that it would investigate the GT200 further and set up an inquiry into its effectiveness that would involve the military and scientists.

Deputy Interior Minister Thaworn Senneam told journalists after a fatal bomb attack in southern Thailand on 6 October 2009 that the police had failed to detect the bomb "because the officer handling the GT200 detector was too nervous... His nervousness caused his temperature to rise which, in turn, caused the bomb detector to malfunction." He announced that in future two officers would be assigned to use the device, with the second ready to take over from the first if he was "not ready to use it."

Following media criticism, army chief General Anupong Paochinda accused the press of working for Avia Satcom's competitors. He organised a demonstration to "prove" to the media that the devices worked. Fourth Army chief Lt. General Pichet Wisaijorn told the press, "It is not Gen Anupong saying the device is effective. Officers in the South and the North and the current and former 4th Army commanders also say the same thing. We have bought them and if the users insist they are good, that's end of the discussion." Joint Military Police Civilian Taskforce commander Lt-General Kasikorn Kirisri said any issues with the GT200 scanner were due to human error. According to Col Banpot Poonpian of the Thai Army's Internal Security Operations Command, the GT200 has "proved effective although it may not work perfectly". It was used only as an auxiliary tool to detect something suspicious, with two other devices being used to identify the suspicious object. A recent investigation had found that failures were the result of users relying solely on the GT200 and not using the other two devices, following which bomb disposal personnel had undergone additional training.

According to a commander in the army, which makes extensive use of the device, how well it works "depends on the static electricity stored in the body of its user. If the person using the detector is feeling weak physically, his static electricity will be down and weaken the effectiveness of the device."

After the BBC
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