Qualitative, quantitative and temporal study of cutting agents for cocaine and heroin over 9 years

Broséus, Julian; Gentile, Natacha; Pont, Federica Bonadio; Gongora, Juan Manuel Garcia; Gasté, Laëtitia; Esseiva, Pierre

doi:10.1016/j.forsciint.2015.09.014

Cited by 68 publications

(67 citation statements)

References 18 publications

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“…In particular, it was lower for every cocaine specimen (see Table 5). Lastly, composition of the ordered cocaine products did not differ significantly from the cocaine specimen seized by law enforcement authorities in Western Switzerland in terms of purity and cutting agents [34].…”

Section: Chemical Analyses Of the Productsmentioning

confidence: 75%

“…They result from the analysis of cocaine specimens confiscated by police and customs. Circumstantial information (criminal case number, mass of drugs seized, date and place of the seizure) is also collated [34][35][36]. In this research work, cocaine specimens purchased on Evolution were profiled and then compared to the profiles stored in this database.…”

Section: Illicit Drugs Chemical Analysis and Profilingmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Buying drugs on a Darknet market: A better deal? Studying the online illicit drug market through the analysis of digital, physical and chemical data

Rhumorbarbe

Staehli

Broséus

et al. 2016

Forensic Science International

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Darknet markets, also known as cryptomarkets, are websites located on the Darknet and designed to allow the trafficking of illicit products, mainly drugs. This study aims at presenting the added value of combining digital, chemical and physical information to reconstruct sellers' activities. In particular, this research focuses on Evolution, one of the most popular cryptomarkets active from January 2014 to March 2015. Evolution source code files were analysed using Python scripts based on regular expressions to extract information about listings (i.e., sales proposals) and sellers. The results revealed more than 48,000 listings and around 2700 vendors claiming to send illicit drug products from 70 countries. The most frequent categories of illicit drugs offered by vendors were cannabis-related products (around 25%) followed by ecstasy (MDA, MDMA) and stimulants (cocaine, speed). The cryptomarket was then especially studied from a Swiss point of view. Illicit drugs were purchased from three sellers located in Switzerland. The purchases were carried out to confront digital information (e.g., the type of drug, the purity, the shipping country and the concealment methods mentioned on listings) with the physical analysis of the shipment packaging and the chemical analysis of the received product (purity, cutting agents, chemical profile based on minor and major alkaloids, chemical class). The results show that digital information, such as concealment methods and shipping country, seems accurate. But the illicit drugs purity is found to be different from the information indicated on their respective listings. Moreover, chemical profiling highlighted links between cocaine sold online and specimens seized in Western Switzerland. This study highlights that (1) the forensic analysis of the received products allows the evaluation of the accuracy of digital data collected on the website, and (2) the information from digital and physical/ chemical traces are complementary to evaluate the practices of the online selling of illicit drugs on cryptomarkets.

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Section: Chemical Analyses Of the Productsmentioning

confidence: 75%

Section: Illicit Drugs Chemical Analysis and Profilingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Buying drugs on a Darknet market: A better deal? Studying the online illicit drug market through the analysis of digital, physical and chemical data

Rhumorbarbe

Staehli

Broséus

et al. 2016

Forensic Science International

Self Cite

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“…Fig. 13 In addition, there is an introduction of a new adulterant, aminopyrine in the cocaine adulteration scenario that has not been detected yet in seized samples by the BFP in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, and for this reason it was not evaluated in this study. The difference in cocaine content was vast, with an average of 390 mg g À1 , a standard deviation of 215 mg g À1 and a maximum of 820.5 mg g À1 .…”

Section: Seized Cocaine Analysismentioning

confidence: 99%

Determination of cocaine and its main adulterants in seized drugs from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, by a Doehlert optimized LC-DAD method

et al. 2016

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The main reason for the increasing cocaine consumption in South America is the high consumption of drugs in Brazil, which is the largest market on the continent. In light of this, the Brazilian Federal Police (BFP) started implementing its own drug chemical profiling program, the PeQui project, aiming to provide useful technical-scientific information about the drug scenario in the country. In this article, a liquid chromatography with a diode array detector (LC-DAD) method was developed through Doehlert optimization for the analysis of cocaine seized in the state of Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, by the Brazilian Federal Police. In addition to cocaine, the main cocaine adulterants (diltiazem, benzocaine, levamisole, caffeine, phenacetin, lidocaine and dipyrone) were also evaluated. Through Doehlert optimization relating to the resolution and total area, a mobile phase consisting of acetonitrile : water (isocratic mode) with phosphate buffer (pH 8.3) was chosen. Fifty eight cocaine samples seized in 2013-2015 were analyzed. The average cocaine content was 45% of the drug weight and the only adulterants detected were levamisole, phenacetin and caffeine. Levamisole was detected only in salt cocaine samples and low concentrations (below 0.1 mg g À1 ), whereas phenacetin was detected in base form cocaine in higher concentrations. Caffeine was the only adulterant detected in both the salt and base forms, and was also at low concentrations. These results showed that the drugs seized in this Brazilian state had, on average, a lower cocaine content in relation to the rest of the country.

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“…Lower heroin purity in this region probably indicates a desire for increased profits by selling a more diluted drug. [8,9,18] Levamisole, an anthelmintic and chemotherapy adjuvant, potentiates the effects of cocaine, possibly through its metabolite aminorex, a psychostimulant amphetamine derivative. [8,9] During the same period, France, Luxembourg, and Austria reported a purity of street cocaine between 30 and 43%, lower than the values reported by the Basque country, the Netherlands, and Switzerland around 60%, in line with the few values reported in this study.…”

Section: What Are the Implications Of These Findings?mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…[1,2] Powdery drugs, such as cocaine and heroin, are frequently adulterated predominantly to obtain more doses and to increase the drug dealer's profits, although a range of modifications of the drug effects may also be observed. [2][3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12] In Italy, only limited and dated information is currently available on the presence of adulterants and on the purity of street heroin and cocaine samples, [10][11][12][13] which makes a systematic analysis desirable. In the second case, pharmacologically active substances have been identified, such as caffeine, paracetamol, methorphan in street heroin or caffeine, levamisole, lidocaine, and benzocaine in street cocaine.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Purity and adulterant analysis of some recent drug seizures in Italy

Pichini

Busardò

Gregori³

et al. 2016

Drug Testing and Analysis

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Qualitative, quantitative and temporal study of cutting agents for cocaine and heroin over 9 years

Cited by 68 publications

References 18 publications

Buying drugs on a Darknet market: A better deal? Studying the online illicit drug market through the analysis of digital, physical and chemical data

Buying drugs on a Darknet market: A better deal? Studying the online illicit drug market through the analysis of digital, physical and chemical data

Determination of cocaine and its main adulterants in seized drugs from Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, by a Doehlert optimized LC-DAD method

Purity and adulterant analysis of some recent drug seizures in Italy

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