The screening of identity documents at borders for forensic drug intelligence purpose

Forensic Chemistry 18 (2020) 100228

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The screening of identity documents at borders for forensic drug intelligence purpose

T

H. Michelota,⁎, S. Chadwicka, M. Morelatoa, M. Tahtouhb, C. Rouxa a b

Centre for Forensic Science, University of Technology Sydney, Broadway, NSW, Australia Specialist Operations Forensics, Australian Federal Police, Locked Bag A3000, Sydney South, NSW 1232, Australia

HIGHLIGHTS

instruments are evaluated for the detection of remnants of illicit substances. • Portable screening of passports at customs is efficient to be deployed routinely. • The stored information from illicit substances’ detections can be employed for intelligence purpose. • The • APCI-ITMS allows for the detection of minute amounts of illicit substances while preventing from false positives. ARTICLE INFO

ABSTRACT

Keywords: Forensic intelligence Identity documents Illicit drugs Portable instruments

The need for law enforcement agencies to obtain results more rapidly has driven the increased use of fielddeployable technology in the field. Currently used in a case-by-case approach, the potential of these new technologies, could go beyond the traditional objective of forensic science (i.e. characterisation and identification) and provide timely information about criminal phenomena (i.e. multi-case approach). The use of portable instrumentation could for instance provide rapid information to law enforcement agencies about drug prevalence and drug smuggling if used in a systematic manner. This paper outlines the potential of using portable instrumentation to gather information related to illicit drugs rapidly. An innovative concept is proposed to screen surfaces of passports for the detection of remnants of illicit substances using rapid equipment already deployed at border controls. An experimental procedure was built to determine if powdered drugs could be detected on the surface of contaminated passports. Various scenarios were tested, including transfer, activity and persistence parameters. Experiments were conducted employing two different instruments, i.e. Ion Mobility spectroscopy (IMS) and Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionisation coupled to an Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer (APCI-ITMS). Promising results were obtained with the proposed method notably with the APCI-ITMS instrument as drugs were detected in minute amounts even after one hour of activity. High rates of false positives were obtained with the IMS contrary to APCI-ITMS. As a result, APCI-ITMS allows for the detection of remnants of illicit substances on passports’ surfaces and the approach employed in this proof of concept can be deployed in a real environment such as in airports.

1. Introduction

techniques continue to be developed to obtain high-quality (with high accuracy) results from a variety of traces [4,5]. Nevertheless, such laboratory techniques can be time-consuming due to chemical extraction and successive laboratory analyses [6]. They are designed for welltrained and highly specialised laboratory technicians and not always suited to the ability or knowledge of field investigators [7]. Furthermore, the destructive nature of these analyses often prevents any

Decentralised in-field forensic science services have become increasingly common, facilitated by rapid technological developments and digital transformations of society [1]. This situation leads in increased expectations to obtain results that can inform many aspects of the security system in a timely fashion [2,3]. Sensitive laboratory

Corresponding author at: Center for Forensic Science, School of Mathematical and Physical Sciences, University of Technology Sydney, PO Box 123 Broadway, NSW 2007, Australia. E-mail addresses: [email protected] (H. Michelot), [email protected] (S. Chadwick), [email protected] (M. Morelato), [email protected] (M. Tahtouh), [email protected] (C. Roux). ⁎

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.forc.2020.100228 Received 16 August 2019; Received in revised form 14 February 2020; Accepted 24 February 2020 Available online 27 February 2020 2468-1709/ © 2020 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.

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Table 1 Summary of techniques employed for illicit drugs detection Technique Ambient Ionisation Mass Spectrometry Attenuated Total Reflection Fourier Transform Infrared (ATR-FTIR portable)

Colourimetric tests

Ion Mobility Spectrometry (IMS)

Lab-on-chip

Paper microfluidics

Advantage

analysis (few seconds); • Rapid sample preparation; • No amounts of the sample can be used (mg); • Small detection limits (pg) • Low crystals chemically inert to corrosive • Diamond solvents and strong acids used to manufacture

Laboratory based technique1

designed for non-technical users; • Not selectivity on the surface of the sample due • Limited to the spatial resolution of 150 µm designed for non-technical users; • Not to be deployed in the field because the • Difficult instrument requires controlled humidity

drugs;

environment; to analyse mixtures without physical • Possible Problem with heterogeneous solid specimens, the separation; • sampling area may not allow to analyse the whole • Non-destructive; sample; analysis (few seconds); • Rapid to analyse aqueous solutions due to strong • Small amounts of the sample can be used (mg) • Difficult interfering water absorption bands (fast analysis and result within one minute); positives and negatives frequent due to a lack • Rapid • False of specificity and sensitivity to individual (designed for non-technical users, no sample • Simple compounds; preparation required, straightforward interpretation of results); Not possible to detect mixtures; • employ hazardous substances; • Easily transportable and usable on site • Often amounts of material required (not • Macroscopic suitable for residues); often required on site (possible • Reagents contamination, use of safety equipment required for detection limits (ng); • Low analysis (few seconds); • Fast sample preparation; • No for non-technical users (simple to use and • Designed operate); expensive to purchase than other trace • Less detection technologies; of the targeted surface, allowing to work • Swabbing in a safe environment as no direct contact required (providing timely information to • Rapid investigators in few seconds); cost compared to laboratory techniques; • Low on-site (miniaturised); • Portable to use (no specific skills needed); • Simple to target compounds • Sensitive (fast analysis and result within one minute); • Rapid (designed for non-technical users, no sample • Simple preparation required, straightforward interpretation of results);

Raman (portable)

Disadvantage

transportable and usable on site; • Easily analysis • Multi-drugs analysis; • Non-destructive • Field-deployable; (compound can be analysed even if • Non-intrusive contained in packaging or in glass bottles); sample preparation; • Minimal to analyse aqueous material • Possible can be separated into individual • Mixtures components for detection; sensitivity and selectivity; • High • Reliable; detection limits (pg); • Low physical forms of material can be analysed • All (solid, liquid, vapour); amount of sample required for analysis • Minimal (mg)

manipulation)

to analyse mixtures (ions conflicts); • Difficult positives frequent due to matrix effects and • False background contamination; relatively easy to saturate with high • Instruments amount of sample; specificity due to chemicals interfering in • Reduced samples (ions from different compounds with similar

References [4,14]

[7,8,11,15–19]

[20–25]

[4,21,25–33]

drift times)

destruction of the sample; • Partial consumption to be used on site; • Reagent • Lack of specificity technique in the development stage; • New positives and negatives possible due to a lack of • False specificity and sensitivity to individual compounds; amounts of material required (not • Macroscopic suitable for residues)

sampling area (5 mm) which may not analyse • Small the whole sample, problematic for solid

[22,23,34,35]

[36–38]

[6,11,12,18,39]

heterogeneous material;

to analyse complex mixtures; • Difficult • Not designed for non-technical users requires partial or complete destruction of • Analysis the sample; sample preparation; • Extensive analysis time compared to portable • Increased instruments; extraction methods required; • Specific limited with the solubility of target • Technique compounds; sent for analysis in laboratories lengthen the • Samples investigative process before identification; infrastructure required; • Laboratory lots of chemicals (not environmentally • Consume friendly and expensive); skilled operator required; • Highly to purchase and maintain compared to • Expensive field deployable technologies

[4,7,21,24,26,35,42]

1 They include - but are not limited to - Gas and Liquid Chromatography Mass Spectrometry (respectively GC–MS and LC-MS), Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICPMS), or Isotopic Ratio Mass Spectrometry (IRMS) [40,41].

subsequent analysis [8]. Portable instruments or rapid presumptive techniques are commonly deployed directly at crime scenes, which complement laboratory techniques [9]. Such technologies are expected to be non-destructive,

requiring no specialised knowledge, with little to no specimen preparation, providing discriminative results, with a miniaturised portable instrument directly usable on site to analyse traces inexpensively and in a timely fashion. Law enforcement agencies, notably customs at 2

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airports, routinely employ field deployable technologies on various types of traces such as illicit drugs or explosive residues [10–12], and obtain chemical information from physical specimens [13]. Each of these instruments has specific advantages and disadvantages, which may influence the choice of the instrument employed. Table 1 is a nonexhaustive review of most commonly used instruments by law enforcement agencies on illicit drugs. This article will target the analysis of such traces using portable instruments, in particular Ion Mobility Spectroscopy (IMS) and Atmospheric Pressure Chemical Ionisation coupled to an Ion Trap Mass Spectrometers (APCI-ITMS). The two different technologies are currently deployed at borders and used routinely by law enforcement agencies to detect illicit drugs. It can be argued that the potential of portable technologies is not fully exploited as their end use is essentially for identification through random screenings (customs) or individual cases [22]. The potential added value and integration with other dimensions of law enforcement remains unclear [43,44]. Using these instruments beyond the traditional case-to-case approach is, in the authors’ opinion, where the technology should be orientated, notably to gain further knowledge of criminal phenomena. Studies have been performed to determine the quantity of illicit substance retrieved on the surfaces of banknotes in order to distinguish the general population of banknotes from the ones contaminated with illicit substances, as this is often a question raised in Court [45–48], due to its “potential evidentiary value in the prosecution of drug-related crimes” [49]. Establishing variations in the quantity of illicit substances retrieved on banknotes provides useful background information to assess such traces to pursue a search warrant, or seizure, or arrest individuals in possession of the contaminated banknotes [50,51] These studies used sensitive techniques as well as field instruments for the detection of minute amounts of illicit substances. The results revealed that banknotes worldwide are contaminated with minute amounts of illegal substances, mainly cocaine (ranging from 1 ng to 10 µg) [49,52–54], especially in the United States and in Europe, whether it is associated with money laundering or general circulation [45,50]. It has however been demonstrated that powder drugs, such as cocaine, can spread easily and have the potential to contaminate any type of support: for instance, it has been retrieved on external parts of hair from random individuals [55]. These studies indicate that cocaine is ubiquitous and the significance of its detection on banknotes has limited value. Furthermore, it has to be kept in mind that even if the presence of controlled substances is detected on banknotes, it does not automatically imply a direct link with the use or trafficking of that compound [56]. Once a banknote is contaminated, it will remain as such for a long time, possibly for its duration of circulation, and it might contaminate other banknotes in the general circulation by direct contact [51,56,57]. Unlike banknotes, identity documents such as passports are not in heavy circulation; hence the chances of background contamination are lower. Most of the contact expected with an identity document would primarily be coming from its owner. However, from an analytical and material standpoint, a parallel can be established between banknotes and passports for the detection of small amounts of illicit drugs. Minute amounts of substances may be transferred onto passports’ surface with similar physical properties as banknotes. If a person is involved in drug trafficking or is a consumer, they will most likely be in contact with the illegal substance. Thus, they may contaminate their passport if going through customs at airports: employing identity documents such as passports would be considered as a valuable alternative to banknotes. The aim of this paper is to outline a new approach to obtain information for strategic and operational purposes, using rapid instruments already deployed at borders. More specifically, the feasibility to use rapid tools to screen passports for the detection of illicit substances is examined. To assess the proposed approach, an experimental was designed to determine the efficiency of portable instruments already deployed at

customs for such an application. After reviewing the results obtained in a controlled environment, the potential of such techniques if employed in a systematic manner for intelligence purpose will be emphasized as well as concrete implications for law enforcement procedures at customs. 2. Material and methods 2.1. Material 2.1.1. Chemicals Experiments were performed using standards of pure cocaine HCl (purity 99.8 ± 2.0%, standard number D757c), heroin base (purity 99.4 ± 2.0%, standard number D752c), methamphetamine HCl (purity 99.8 ± 1.9%, standard number D816g), and MDMA HCl (purity 97.0 ± 1.7%, standard number D792d). All standards were purchased from the Australian Government National Measurement Institute. 2.1.2. Surfaces The external surface of expired passports from various countries (United States of America, Australia, Canada, France, Ireland, New Zealand, Philippines, Switzerland, and United Kingdom) was used as the deposition surface for the experiments. The surface of a laminated benchtop was also used as a support. 2.1.3. Swabs Teflon swabs (500-DT AE-ROW swabs, PN 6822254-A from Smith Detection®) were employed for IMS analyses, and cotton-based swabs (Bemcot M-1 wipes from Asahikasei®) were employed for APCI-ITMS analyses. 2.2. Method 2.2.1. General procedure The overall study aimed to reproduce realistic conditions through different scenarios of a passport being put in contact with an illicit substance. Prior to each experiment, surfaces (i.e. passport’s and benchtop’s surface) were wiped with a tissue (without any solvent to avoid degradation of the surface of the passport and to prevent potential adhesion which may affect the ability of the powder to remain on or be removed from the surface), and a blank swab was collected and

Fig. 1. Specimen preparation steps 3

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analysed to ensure the absence of any background contamination. Following this, a contact was established between the passport’s surface and the substance in powder form, either using fingers or a planar surface (Fig. 1). In order to mimic a realistic scenario, no additional specimen preparation was performed. Different parameters and situations were tested, including activity, transfer and persistence, as summarised in Fig. 2. Three activity durations were tested, from 10 min to 30 min to one hour. Moreover, the persistence parameter was tested for 12 h and for 24 h. Each experiment was conducted ten times. All experiments were conducted for both instruments unless otherwise specified. The swab procedure consisted in applying the swab all over the contaminated surface in a raster pattern (either passport or benchtop) to collect the maximum of potential residues of substance deposited. The whole procedure was performed by one researcher applying a

Table 3 Parameters employed for APCI-ITMS analyses Desorber temperature (°C) Ion source temperature (°C) MS polarity MS 1 ion accumulation time (ms) MS 1 scan range (amu) MS 2 ion accumulation time (ms) MS 2 scan range (amu)

performed (for both technologies) by analyzing a clean swab. This step was repeated until no substance was detected. If not, a clean cycle was conducted. The limits of detection of both instruments were from 0.2 to 0.7 ng for the IMS and from 0.05 to 0.5 µg for the APCI-ITMS for the targeted substances. 2.2.3. Transfer experiment To determine the capacity of transfer of the four substances on the surface of the passports, a non-visible amount (<0.05 mg, corresponding to an amount that could be detected by instrumentation but not visible to the naked eye) of each substance was applied on a pair of fingers. The two fingers were then briefly put in contact with the passport. In the same manner, a non-visible amount of each substance was placed on the surface of a benchtop in a second series of experiments, and passports were put in direct contact with the benchtop (no further pressure was applied on the passport once in contact with the benchtop, to simulate a real case scenario2). For both scenarios, a swab was performed directly after the contamination of the surface of the passport, and the analysis of this swab done immediately after swabbing.

Fig. 2. Methodology developed for analysis after transfer, activity and persistence experiments

2.2.4. Activity and persistence experiment To determine the capacity of retention of the substance on the surface of passports as well as on fingers, a non-visible amount of each drug standard was applied on two fingers (<0.05 mg), followed by an activity that lasted from 10 minutes up to 1 hour (such as typing on a keyboard or touching other surfaces, but excluding washing hands). The surface of the passport was then touched with fingers with no additional force other than a regular contact between a finger and a surface. A swab was performed after the contamination of the surface, and the analysis done immediately after swabbing. In order to establish the retrieval of the drug standards after a certain amount of time prior to the analysis, another series of ‘persistence’ experiments was conducted, using the same procedure as for the transfer experiment. The passports were subsequently left either for 12 hours or 24 hours (two sets of experiments) on a benchtop prior swabbing and analysis.

systematic method to ensure the reproducibility of the results. 2.2.2. Instrumental analyses IMS was employed using IonScan 500 DT™ from Smiths Detection® (instrument provided by the Australian Federal Police). APCI-ITMS was used with the DS-1100 N™ instrument developed by Hitachi® for the detection of controlled substances at customs. This new technology is currently deployed and routinely used at borders in Japan and Thailand. It is similar to IMS, in terms of its detection time, however it relies on mass spectroscopy to provide an identification. The advantage of the ITMS over IMS is the ability to perform tandem mass spectrometry, which provides greater specificity and selectivity [58,59]. The parameters used to conduct IMS analyses are summarised in Table 2: APCI-ITMS analyses were performed using optimised parameters

2.2.5. Blind tests In order to validate the experimental methodology, blind tests were conducted in which the person analysing the passports had no knowledge of the illicit drug (if any) present on the surface of the passport. Twenty passports were employed for this experiment. On each passport, participants could either not contaminate the passport, or contaminate the passport with one or even multiple drug standards (non-visible amount of substance applied on fingers). Analyses were subsequently performed few minutes after the contamination of the passports (only APCI-ITMS was employed) and obtained results compared to what had been prepared by the participants.

Table 2 Parameters employed for IMS analyses Desorber temperature (°C) Detection/tube temperature (°C) Drift flow (cm3 min−1) Sampling time (s)

245 260 300 8.00

from Hitachi® as displayed in Table 31: After each positive analysis, a clear down of the instrument was 1

250 200 Negative 2 25–150 10 150–450

2 In this case, a real case scenario could be a contaminated surface where illicit substances were packed.

Other parameters could not be disclosed for confidential reasons. 4

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Fig. 3. Results obtained with IMS. *: No detection; DTF: Direct Transfer with Fingers; DTB: Direct Transfer with Benchtop; 10 min A: 10 min of Activity prior to transfer; 30 min A: 30 min of Activity prior to transfer; 1 h A: one hour of Activity prior to transfer; 12 h P: 12 h persistence after transfer; 24 h P: 24 h persistence after transfer; TP: True Positive detected; FP: False Positive detected

5

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Fig. 4. Results obtained with APCI-ITMS. *: No detection; DTF: Direct Transfer with Fingers; DTB: Direct Transfer with Benchtop; 10 min A: 10 min of Activity prior to transfer; 30 min A: 30 min of Activity prior to transfer; 1 h A: one hour of Activity prior to transfer; 12 h P: 12 h persistence after transfer; 24 h P: 24 h persistence after transfer; TP: True Positive detected

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3. Results

Table 4 Results from blind tests using APCI-ITMS

3.1. Transfer, persistence and activity experiments Results from all experiments are summarised in Fig. 3 for IMS and Fig. 4 for APCI-ITMS. As there were ten replicates or more per experiment and per drug standard, the cumulative number of positive detections is displayed as a percentage value each time. IMS results were different for direct transfer experiments if the direct transfer occurred between the surface of passports and fingers or benchtop, notably for cocaine. A positive detection was observed if a direct contact happened with fingers (90% of the time), but rarely for a direct transfer on the benchtop (20%). In any case, for many specimens, positive detections were false positives. The percentage of false positives with heroin was even higher than the actual compound’s detection. More specifically, tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) was detected in most experiments employing heroin, either in addition to or without the detection of heroin. Also, cocaine was often detected in addition to methamphetamine or MDMA. False positives were detected in several types of situations:

• One or multiple compounds were detected in addition of a positive •

•

analysis of the targeted compound, which corresponded to 10% of cocaine analyses, 56% of heroin analyses, 7% of methamphetamine analyses and 13% of MDMA analyses; One or multiple substances were detected even if the targeted compound was not detected. Cocaine and methamphetamine were two substances that were often detected even if the targeted substance was not detected. Those false positives occurred in 6% of cocaine analyses, 12.5% of heroin analyses, 16% of methamphetamine analyses and 12% MDMA analyses; One or multiple substances were detected with clean swabs, which necessitated a clear down of the instrument and lengthened the analysis process.

Passport’s number

Result

Substance deposited

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20

Negative MDMA Negative Cocaine Negative Heroin Negative Methamphetamine Negative Negative Cocaine Negative Cocaine; Heroin Cocaine Heroin Cocaine Negative Methamphetamine Negative Methamphetamine

Cocaine MDMA None Heroin + cocaine MDMA Heroin None Methamphetamine None None MDMA + Cocaine MDMA Cocaine + Heroin Cocaine Heroin Cocaine MDMA MDMA + Methamphetamine None Methamphetamine

4. Discussion 4.1. Transfer, persistence and activity experiments From the results presented in the previous section, an interesting comparison of both techniques employed can be established, as summarised in Table 5. False positives were observed with IMS, as presented in Table 6 which summarises the total identification rates observed in Figs. 3 and 4 for all drugs and for all experiments. False positives observed with IMS may be explained due to a carryover of the instrument. Table 6. The tendency of drugs to stay in the instrument after positive analyses was already observed by Forbes et al. [21] (even if taking into account environmental background as a criterion to reduce false positives). Cocaine was the most problematic substance after positive analyses. Moreover, the lack of selectivity of the instrument may explain why THC was falsely detected in the presence of heroin because of their similar drift times [59]. It has been established that structurally similar substances may interfere with the actual drug, such as caffeine which may produce a positive alarm for cocaine due to similar drift times [60]. As a result, in the case of this study and with remnants of drugs in powder forms, the outcomes were not reliable. Solutions have been investigated in research studies to improve the selectivity of analyses, for instance if the IMS detector is coupled to a GC, thus allowing compounds to migrate and being separated before entering the IMS detector [26]. In this respect, parameters from the IMS detector may influence the recovery of cocaine, especially the temperature for heating the specimen, as demonstrated in the study by Sorribes-Soriano et al. [61]. However, this implies a longer time of analysis, which was not the primary goal of this study as willing to get results in a timely fashion. Parameters of the IonScan 500 DT™ were used as provided and were not optimised to reduce false positives, the overall aim being to find a technology (and already set analytical parameters) already used routinely by law-enforcement agencies. APCI-ITMS was expected to be more specific than IMS. This was confirmed through the different experiments, as false positives were not obtained as seen in Table 6, contrary to IMS experiments. Results from

Regarding the APCI-ITMS results, positive detections for direct transfer experiments were predominantly observed, either using fingers or using a benchtop, individual compounds’ variations aside. Contrary to IMS, false positives were not observed. A pattern was noticeable for the activity experiments: the more time elapsed, the less compounds were detected. None of the standards were retrieved after one hour of activity, and this could even be generalised to 30 min (only 10% recovery for heroin, other compounds were not detected). Persistence experiments varied from compound to compound and positive detections were different if the passports were left for 12 h or 24 h, and no pattern was observed, especially as results were higher for heroin after 24 h (70%) than after 12 h (50%). 3.2. Blind tests Results from the blind tests are summarised in Table 4. The detected compounds were correctly identified for 13 out of 20 analyses. Incorrect results occurred four times out of 20, corresponding to undetected result when a substance was actually deposited on the passport’ surface, which was MDMA three times out of four. Only one substance was detected when more than one drug was deposited on passports’ surfaces three times out of four. In this respect, when cocaine was present in addition to another substance, it was the only one detected.

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Table 5 Comparative summary of results obtained with both techniques Technique

Advantages

analysis (<10 s); • Rapid to use; • Easy interpretation of results (yes or no answer directly obtained); • Fast (detection below 0.05 mg); • Sensitive analysis (<10 s); • Rapid to use; • Easy interpretation of results (yes or no answer directly obtained); • Fast (secondary MS to target product ions); • Specific compounds at a time can be analysed and detected; • Multiple drug standards detected after direct transfer using fingers and with benchtop; • Four • Four drug standards detected half of the time after persistence experiment

IMS

APCI-ITMS

True Positives (%)

False Positives (%)

True Negatives (%)

False Negatives (%)

IMS APCI-ITMS

51 59

39 0

-1 –

3.5 25

1 The experiments consisting in detecting drugs residues, the true negatives are absent from the results.

the study can therefore be interpreted with confidence if APCI-ITMS was employed. False negatives should be interpreted in the context of this study: they are deduced from analyses where no detection was observed which was conditioned by the different scenarios involving persistence and activity and do not imply a wrong interpretation of a negative result (see Figs. 3 and 4). Positive results were obtained with the developed methodology employing remnants of drugs: even if particles were not visible on fingers (thus being present in a very small quantity), the DS-1100 N™ instrument was sensitive enough to allow a positive identification of the four drug standards after direct transfer (either using fingers or on a tabletop) and up to 24 h after deposition on the surface for 59% of analyses.

4.3. A practical application through a hypothetical scenario The approach proposed could be used to quickly detect patterns in drug importations, without consuming costly resources. From this perspective, portable instruments could be employed routinely for the systematic screening of passports directly on site. Indeed, portable instruments would allow the monitoring of illicit substances in a timely fashion, and results would be quickly assessed in a binary manner (i.e. substance X detected or not). The prevalence of drug types and their frequency of detection would inform on consumption trends as well as importation/exportation trends. This procedure would not be intrusive for passport's carriers, as only the external surface would be screened. The proposed approach would allow a broader picture to be obtained by focusing on all collected results rather than targeting individuals, enabling a possible mapping of the trafficking routes of repeatedly detected substances at customs. As a result, a better perception of the type of illicit substances available in the country (whether consumed, sold or trafficked) would be obtained. Furthermore, passports (or alternatively accepted identity documents) seem to be a suitable support to be analysed, as they are required to enter and exit a country. Screening instruments are already implemented at airports for the detection of explosives. The screening of passports could be implemented similarly, without recording any personal information from passengers, except their boarding location/ country. The hypothetical scenario presented hereafter illustrates this purpose. A person working in a clandestine laboratory is in contact with illegal substance A. This person travels to the airport, thus holding their passport and consequently transferring particles of A onto their passport. A rapid screening instrument such as the DS-1100 N™ is implemented at customs, and the passport's surface is screened for the detection of illegal substances (i.e. only for identification). As seen Fig. 4, it would be unlikely to find residues after 30 min of activity or more than 24 h after transfer. A positive detection would thus be highly indicative of the passport having either been in direct contact with an illicit substance at least within the last 24 h, or that an individual who handled illicit substances within 10 min of contact with that substance had contact with the passport. Also, the persistence of the residues on hands being close from 0 for 30 minutes to one hour of activity, a positive detection would be a strong indication of a direct contact and not

4.2. Blind tests Blind tests conducted with APCI-ITMS suggested that cocaine, when present in minute amounts on a passport with other substances, was more likely to be detected and might have ‘hidden’ other substances, leading to false negatives. The DS-1100N™ instrument was designed for identification and not for quantification. The technology did not allow for the development of a calibration curve to validate results previously established, as only a yes or no answer was provided. Conflicting results regarding the detection of MDMA in the different experiments emphasise the need for caution when interpreting results with this compound. Indeed, MDMA was detected in all analyses after direct transfer with fingers. It was thus expected to be detected six times out of six experiments with the blind tests, but it was only detected once (when alone). Many parameters were not controlled in experiments, and it would be expected to observe variations from one individual to another. Particles may not be retained in the same quantities on fingers, they may not be applied similarly on passports’ surfaces and thus the amount remaining on passports’ surfaces may vary. Despite these limitations associated with analytical choices, Table 7 Summary of identification rates obtained with APCI-ITMS during the blind tests Technique

True Positives (%)

False Positives (%)

True Negatives (%)

False Negatives (%)

APCI-ITMS

73

0

100

20

specific: false positives observed with the four drug standards; • Not to clean after contamination (carry over of the instrument); • Difficult • Results from experiments not reliable to draw conclusions drug standards rarely detected after activity of 10 min to 30 min; • Four drug standards never detected after activity of 1 h; • Four • Undetected specimens

outcomes are promising as remnants of drugs could be detected with a limited number of false positives and false negatives, as presented in Table 7, when swabbing the surface of passports even after one hour of activity. It emphasises that field instruments currently deployed at customs, especially APCI-ITMS, could be employed routinely for the detection of remnants of drugs on surfaces of passports. As an illustration of the proposed approach, a hypothetical scenario is outlined hereafter to further develop the benefit of employing this type of technology for intelligence purpose.

Table 6 Summary of total identification rates obtained with IMS and APCI-ITMS (%) Technique

Disadvantages

8

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due to a secondary or tertiary transfer. No personal information from the passport is retained after the analysis. This process is repeated for each passenger going through customs (arrivals/departures). The fast result (i.e. illegal substances detected or not) along with their boarding location/country is stored in a database, as illustrated in Fig. 5:

A list of prevalence of repeatedly detected substances may now be established based on detected links, from the most to the less frequently detected illicit substance, which will provide police with a better knowledge of major and minor illicit substances being trafficked or consumed in and out of the country. More pragmatically, this information may be used to prioritise the work of law enforcement, for instance focusing resource to minimise the importation of substance A into the country. Furthermore, passengers going through customs are related to an origin or destination country. As a result, it may be possible to connect the illicit substance detected to a specific country, as illustrated in Fig. 7. If B is regularly retrieved on the surface of passports from passengers (not individualised) arriving from Country 2, a pattern is established: B may be illegally imported from Country 2. It gives powerful information to customs. Indeed, in addition to random checks, they may now focus on luggage arriving from Country 2 (for instance with detection dogs) based on previous knowledge. This information can also be provided to other authorities to contribute to their overall knowledge of the illicit drug situation, assess and review their policies and procedures. 5. Conclusions Field instruments are increasingly used at customs by law enforcement agencies for the screening of traces. The rise of portable technologies and their deployment in the field for preliminary screening is nowadays often integrated in the investigative process. However, their end use is primarily for individual cases. It is, nonetheless, believed that the extent of their usage in a systematic manner would bring new information to police and policy makers. The feasibility to use already deployed screening instruments at customs to detect remnants of illicit substances present on the surface of passports was investigated using IMS and APCI-ITMS technologies. An experimental design was developed by using minute amounts of illicit substances through various scenarios involving transfer, activity and persistence. Remnants of drugs could be detected with APCI-ITMS analyses, with minimised false positives and false negatives, when swabbing the surface of passports even after one hour of activity. In contrast, most of results obtained with IMS presented false positives. In this proof of concepts, the parameters and analytical criteria employed demonstrate the possibility to deploy this approach in a real environment such as in airports, as the technology (i.e. APCI-ITMS) currently deployed allows for the detection of remnants of illicit substances on passports’ surfaces. The novel approach proposed in this paper if implemented for systematic use at customs would expand a holistic view on drug trafficking by using screening of passports’ surfaces at customs for the detection of drugs' residues providing results in real time. The monitoring of illicit substances frequently detected would allow law enforcement to prioritise their resources to these drugs, for instance for seizures or prevention campaigns against their harm on health, as well as getting a better overview of illicit substances being trafficked and consumed in the country. Moreover, implementing the proposed method at customs for routine use would facilitate police work, as collected results and inferred patterns could be fused with already existing data from seizures (i.e. prevalence of types of drugs, known trafficking routes).

Fig. 5. Database containing results after screening of passports

On each passport analysed, an illegal substance may be detected or not, and different substances may be identified. Links can then be highlighted between passports (automatic comparison process between all results stored in the database), as illustrated in Fig. 6:

Fig. 6. Links established from results in the database

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Fig. 7. Added knowledge from established links

Declaration of Competing Interest

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