PMID- 24438775
OWN - NLM
STAT- PubMed-not-MEDLINE
DCOM- 20140403
LR  - 20140120
IS  - 1355-0306 (Print)
IS  - 1355-0306 (Linking)
VI  - 54
IP  - 1
DP  - 2014 Jan
TI  - The use of organic and inorganic impurities found in MDMA police seizures in a 
      drug intelligence perspective.
PG  - 32-41
LID - S1355-0306(13)00084-1 [pii]
LID - 10.1016/j.scijus.2013.08.006 [doi]
AB  - Traditional forensic drug profiling involves numerous analytical techniques, and 
      the whole process is typically costly and may be time consuming. The aim of this 
      study was to investigate the possibility of prioritising techniques utilised at 
      the Australian Federal Police (AFP) for the chemical profiling of 
      3,4-methylenedioxymethylamphetamine (MDMA). The outcome would provide the AFP 
      with the ability to obtain more timely and valuable results that could be used in 
      an intelligence perspective. Correlation coefficients were used to obtain a 
      similarity degree between a population of linked samples (within seizures) and a 
      population of unlinked samples (between different seizures) and discrimination 
      between the two populations was ultimately achieved. The results showed that gas 
      chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS) was well suited as a single technique to 
      detect links between seizures and could be used in priority for operational 
      intelligence purposes. Furthermore, the method was applied to seizures known or 
      suspected (through their case information) to be linked to each other to assess 
      the chemical similarity between samples. It was found that half of the seizures 
      previously linked by the case number were also linked by the chemical profile. 
      This procedure was also able to highlight links between cases that were 
      previously unsuspected and retrospectively confirmed by circumstantial 
      information. The findings are finally discussed in the broader forensic 
      intelligence context, with a focus on how they could be successfully incorporated 
      into investigations and in an intelligence-led policing perspective in order to 
      understand trafficking markets.
CI  - (c) 2014.
FAU - Morelato, Marie
AU  - Morelato M
AD  - Centre for Forensic Science, University of Technology, Sydney, Broadway, NSW, 
      Australia.
FAU - Beavis, Alison
AU  - Beavis A
AD  - Centre for Forensic Science, University of Technology, Sydney, Broadway, NSW, 
      Australia.
FAU - Tahtouh, Mark
AU  - Tahtouh M
AD  - Forensics, Australian Federal Police, Sydney, NSW, Australia.
FAU - Ribaux, Olivier
AU  - Ribaux O
AD  - Ecole des Sciences Criminelles, Universite de Lausanne, Lausanne-Dorigny, 
      Switzerland.
FAU - Kirkbride, Paul
AU  - Kirkbride P
AD  - School of Chemical and Physical Sciences, Flinders University, Bedford Park, 
      South Australia, Australia.
FAU - Roux, Claude
AU  - Roux C
AD  - Centre for Forensic Science, University of Technology, Sydney, Broadway, NSW, 
      Australia. Electronic address: Claude.Roux@uts.edu.au.
LA  - eng
PT  - Journal Article
DEP - 20130912
PL  - England
TA  - Sci Justice
JT  - Science & justice : journal of the Forensic Science Society
JID - 9508563
OTO - NOTNLM
OT  - 3,4-Methylenedioxymethylamphetamine (MDMA)
OT  - Forensic intelligence
OT  - Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS)
OT  - Illicit drug profiling
OT  - Statistics
EDAT- 2014/01/21 06:00
MHDA- 2014/01/21 06:01
CRDT- 2014/01/21 06:00
PHST- 2013/03/22 00:00 [received]
PHST- 2013/08/12 00:00 [revised]
PHST- 2013/08/16 00:00 [accepted]
PHST- 2014/01/21 06:00 [entrez]
PHST- 2014/01/21 06:00 [pubmed]
PHST- 2014/01/21 06:01 [medline]
AID - S1355-0306(13)00084-1 [pii]
AID - 10.1016/j.scijus.2013.08.006 [doi]
PST - ppublish
SO  - Sci Justice. 2014 Jan;54(1):32-41. doi: 10.1016/j.scijus.2013.08.006. Epub 2013 
      Sep 12.