Development of a methamphetamine chemical profiling program in Quebec, Canada for use in an intelligence perspective

Abstract

This paper describes a new method for the chemical profiling of seized methamphetamine tablets. This method was performed for the first time in Quebec, Canada, at the Laboratoire de sciences judiciaires et de médecine légale (LSJML, Provincial Forensic Laboratory). The main objective was to provide information related to the production and trafficking of methamphetamine tablets in the province of Quebec. Samples were analyzed using Gas Chromatography-Mass Spectrometry (GC-MS) and 12 relevant impurities were selected to establish the chemical class. Data were pretreated by the normalization to the sum of peak responses followed by the square roots. The Manhattan distance was then calculated between population of linked samples and unlinked samples. The method proved to efficiently discriminate between the two populations. A comprehensive database containing the profiles of all analyzed samples was established and continues to be updated. The database incorporates information about purity, chemical class, presence of cutting agents and physical characteristics of each specimen. If systematically applied, this methodology should highlight connections between ongoing cases and those stored in the database, as well as facilitate comparisons between preselected cases based on traditional police casework. Integrating the results of methamphetamine tablet chemical profiling with other pertinent law enforcement data will yield valuable tactical and operational intelligence as well as strategic intelligence. This project brings an additional tool to investigators with the differentiation of linked and unlinked methamphetamine specimens. Although further research is required to determine the tool's capacity to understand methamphetamine production and distribution networks, it shows potential for contributing to efforts against illicit production and trafficking in the province of Quebec, Canada.

Keywords: Forensic intelligence; Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry (GC-MS); Illicit drug profiling; Methamphetamine; Multivariate analysis.