Safran Group‘s Morpho Detection has supplied a XRD 3500 explosive detection system to London’s Heathrow Airport for automatic narcotics detection. The XRD (X-Ray Diffraction) 3500 is also deployed in Germany for automatic explosives detection in baggage. The United Kingdom Border Agency will use the system to screen select baggage coming into the country from high-risk narcotics producing and trafficking countries. The XRD 3500 can pinpoint the exact location of potential narcotics without opening bags. Morpho Detection says it is the only baggage screening system with the technology to automatically find drugs in bags, reducing the need for canine and hand searches. Previously suspect pieces of luggage were manually inspected. “The XRD 3500 system improves our capabilities to fight narcotics entering the U.K.,” says Richard Tomsett, manager of the Emerging Technologies Team, U.K. Border Agency. “Reducing the time it takes to inspect each piece of luggage has allowed us to deploy our resources more broadly, expanding the number of bags we are able to search.” Morpho says the system was first deployed to Heathrow in Feb. 2009.
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