Heroin chemical signatures provide important information to law enforcement and the intelligence community in order to combat the national and international heroin epidemic. Illicit heroin samples of known origin collected from Southeast Asia (SEA), Southwest Asia (SWA), South America (SA) and SA-like heroin manufactured in Mexico (MEX-SA) were prepared for chemical analysis using microwave-assisted acid digestion. Trace element concentration data were acquired using a high-resolution inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (HR-ICP-MS). The samples having sufficient [88Sr] (&gt; 4 mg/kg in the sample) were prepared by ion exchange resin and the 87Sr/86Sr was measured using multi-collector inductively-coupled plasma mass spectrometry (MC-ICP-MS). South American (SA) and MEX-SA heroin samples are presently the most challenging regions to differentiate by analysis of their organic compositions. SA and MEX-SA heroin samples were correctly classified 82% and 77% of the time, respectively, when strontium isotope ratio (87Sr/86Sr) values of individual authentic samples were compared to the overall mean values from the four regions. The combination of trace element concentrations to the 87Sr/86Sr further improved the classification of heroin samples from each of the four geographic regions of origin up to 90% correct classification, in some cases. The use of multivariate comparisons to associate heroin samples originating from the same source and for discriminating heroin samples originating from different sources will also be presented.

Geographic sourcing of heroin using trace elements and strontium isotope ratios

256th National Meeting (2018)

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