THE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF SEIZED COCAINE READY ......Adli Tıp Dergisi / Turkish Journal of Forensic Medicine, Cilt / Vol.:24, Sayı / No:3 54 The Chemical Analysis of Seized Cocaine

54Adli Tıp Dergisi / Turkish Journal of Forensic Medicine, Cilt / Vol.:24, Sayı / No:3

The Chemical Analysis of Seized Cocaine Ready to be Transferred as Absorbed into Towel, Bathrobe and T-shirt; A Case Report

Summary

Turkey has a strategic location for the transit of narcotic mat-ters from Europe to Asia and vice versa. Due to this, various quaint methods of cocaine smuggling is observed such as placing cocaine into a human body or an animal body as cartridges.

In this study, cocaine, which is transformed to liquid phase, is examined by chemical methods.

In the case examined cocaine is absorbed into towel, bathrobe and T-shirt and ready to be trans-ferred in this form.

The samples are taken from ten pieces of towel, bathrobe and T-shirt and firstly it is analyzed using chemical color tests, then solid-liquid extraction, and finally gas chromatographic methods. The total quantity of absorbed material and the quantity of pure cocaine is measured via solid-li-

quid extraction and gas chroma-tographic methods.

Despite the continued efforts of drug enforcement and treatment, cocaine abuse remains a problem throughout the world. Narcotics smuggling provides one of the most vital sources of criminal or-ganizations and especially of ter-rorist organizations.

Keywords: narcotic, smuggling, cocaine, chemical analysis.

> Uz. Dr. Gürol BERBER1 > Neval BERBER2 > Uz. Dr. Eyüp KANDEMİR1

1 MD, Council of Forensic Medicine, Ministry of Justice, Istanbul, Turkey2 Chemical Engineer, Chemistry department, Council of Forensic Medicine, Ministry of Justice, Istanbul, Turkey

The total quantity of absorbed material and the quantity of pure cocaine is measured via solid-liquid extraction and gas chromatographic methods.

READY TO BE TRANSFERRED AS ABSORBED INTO TOWEL, BATHROBE AND T-SHIRT; A CASE REPORT

THE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF SEIZED COCAINE

55 Adli Tıp Dergisi / Turkish Journal of Forensic Medicine, Cilt / Vol.:24, Sayı / No:3

Gürol BERBER, Neval BERBER, Eyüp KANDEMİR

ÖZETTürkiye’nin Asya’dan Avrupa’ya ve Avrupa’dan Asya’ya olmak üze-re karşılıklı uyuşturucu madde transferi yönünden önemli bir yeri vardır. Bu yüzden çok çeşitli yön-temlerle örneğin kokaini insan vü-cuduna, hayvan vücuduna kapsül şeklinde koyarak taşımak yoluyla uyuşturucu kaçakçılığı yapılmak-tadır.

Bu çalışmamızda likit faza geçiril-miş kokain kimyasal yöntemlerle

incelenmiştir. Çalışmamızda kul-lanılan kokain havluya, bornoza ve tişört’e emdirilerek transfere hazır hale getirilmiştir.

On parçadan oluşan havludan bornozdan ve tişörtten alınan örnekler kimyasal renk testleri ile ilk önce analiz edildi sonra likit ekstraksiyon yöntemi ile çalışılıp en sonunda gaz kromo-tografik yöntemler kullanıldı. Emdirilmiş materyalin tamamı ve saf kokain miktarı solid- likit ekstraksiyon yöntemleri ve gaz

kromotografik yöntemlerle ana-liz edildi.

İlaç alımı ve kullanımı yönün-deki gayretlere rağmen kokai-nin kullanımı dünyada hala bir problem olmaya devam etmek-tedir. Narkotik kaçakçılığı hala suç örgütlerine özellikle de te-rör örgütlerine en önemli kay-nakları sağlamaktadır.

Anahtar Kelimeler: narkotik, ka-çakçılık, kokain, kimyasal analiz.

BİR OLGU SUNUMU

HAVLUYA, BORNOZA VE TİŞÖRTE EMDİRİLEREK TRANSFERE HAZIR HALE GETİRİLMİŞ HALDE YAKALANAN KOKAİNİN ANALİZİ:

INTRODUCTION

The first information obtained concerning the usage of cocaine rooted to 1500 B.C. Native peop-le living in mountains of Colom-bia, Peru, and Bolivia had been chewing and sucking the leaves of trees, which belong to the fa-mily of erythroxylan. It had an effect on these people like inc-reasing their working potential

while giving them satisfaction of their hunger by this way (1).

Cocaine is an alkaloid that ob-tained from the leaves of the plant named erytroxylan coca which grows in Colombia, Peru, and Bolivia etc. These countries are in the Central and Southern America where a temperate cli-mate is observed. Reaping of plant is made one year after cul-tivation (2, 3). Cocaine is a natu-

ral local anesthetic and a power-ful vasoconstrictor and can be used for medical purposes (4). From the beginning of the 20th century, cocaine has started to be used as local anesthetics (1).

Cocaine, the major alkaloid of the coca plant, is a powerful drug, which might also be abu-sed. Two important metabolites of cocaine are benzoylecgonine, the major metabolite (without

On parçadan oluşan havludan bornozdan ve tişörtten alınan örnekler kimyasal renk testleri ile ilk önce analiz edildi sonra likit ekstraksiyon yöntemi ile çalışılıp en sonunda gaz

kromotografik yöntemler kullanıldı.


pharmacological activity) but also an easily formed hydroly-sis product of cocaine; and co-caethylene, a transesterification product that is formed when co-caine and ethanol are ingested together (5-7).

As cocaine derived from the il-legal market is rarely found in the pure form, most samples showed the presence of dilu-ents, impurities (cis- and trans-cinnamoylcocaine, benzoylec-gonine, ecgonine methylester, norcocaine, methylbenzoate)

and adulterants (about 20% of cases, that is 32 samples). In the national and international literature, lidocaine is reported to be the adulterant most com-monly encountered in illicit co-caine samples as well as being the most toxic one (8-11).

When cocaine is used from nose, it takes 2-3 minutes to

reach brain. When it is used in crack shape (cocaine HCL in cigarette shape usage) it takes 5-10 seconds from alveolus through blood and then to reach brain. The other possible usa-ge of cocaine is injection. But in this way cocaine overdose can easily take place and sudden death can be seen more rapidly (4, 12,13,14,15).

For most drugs, the amount of drug identified in the blood is used to assess lethality. There are recognized blood concent-

rations for most drugs that can-not account for death, even if it is the only remarkable finding. Cocaine is an exception to this general rule. Acute cardiac ef-fects of cocaine are independent of the cocaine concentration in the blood (16-18).

Cocaine smugglers usually in-ject carbonate, fluorescent, lamb

powder, and sodium carbon-ate in cocaine. Effect of cocaine is short, so that it is difficult to prove cocaine users with ana-lytic methods. Plasma half time is also very short. Nearly all of it excreted with urine. If symptoms of cocaine poisoning are present, removal of the drug packs sho-uld be done as soon as possible (14,16,19-22) .

Narcotics smuggling is one of the most vital sources of criminal or-ganizations and especially of ter-rorist organizations (19,23). Since

Turkey has a strategic location for the transfer of narcotics and strict inspections are put through in customs and internal highways, criminal organizations in Turkey developed various methods such as cocaine shaped coffee seed, placing cocaine into human body in cartridge form and absorbing into towel, bathrobe and T-shirt in liquid phase as in our study.

Cocaine smugglers usually inject carbonate, fluorescent, lamb powder, and sodium carbonate in cocaine. Effect of cocaine is short, so that it is difficult to prove cocaine users with analytic methods. Plasma half time is also very short. Nearly all of it excreted with urine. If symptoms of cocaine poisoning are present, removal of the drug packs should be done as soon as possible. Narcotics smuggling is one of the most vital sources of criminal organizations and especially of terrorist organizations.




METERIALS ANDMETHODS

Cocaine, which was transfor-med to liquid phase, was exa-mined by chemical methods. The cocaine was absorbed into towel, bathrobe and T-shirt and ready to be transferred in

this form. To release cocaine from those carriers, cobalt-cyanate solution was dropped on towels. One piece of every sample was solved in chloro-form-methanol solution. The solutions then were analyzed by gas chromatography with a wide-bore column. A wide-bore column (15 mx320 μm 3

μm) with a linear temperatu-re programmed (from 140 to 280C at 8C/min) and a flame ionization detector (FID) were used. Absorbed materials by towel were separated. The to-tal amount of pure cocaine was calculated in those separated materials with ‘gas chroma-tography analysis method’.

Photo 1. Cocaine absorbed into towel, bathrobe and T-shirt




Photo 5. A wide-bore column (15 mx320 μm �3 μm ) with a linear temperature programme (from 140 to 280C at 8C/min) and a flame ionization detector (FID) were used.

RESULTS

When cobalt-cyanate solution was dropped on towels, turqu-oise blue color was obtained which remarks characteristics of cocaine. Then, one piece of every sample was solved in the chloroform-methanol soluti-on. The solution obtained was analyzed again via thin layer chromatography.

Before quantitative analysis, one piece of every sample was taken with ‘solid liquid extrac-tion method’ so that absorbed materials by towel were separa-ted. The amount of pure cocaine

in those separated substances was calculated with gas chro-matography analysis method.

With solid liquid extraction met-hod, the separated materials from the towels were collected in Erlenmeyer flask. A wide-bo-re column (15 mx320 μm �3 μm) with a linear temperature prog-ramme (from 140 to 280C at 8C/min) and a flame ionization de-tector (FID) was used.

The chromatograms were ext-racted from those materials and by this way the approxima-te quantity of pure cocaine was calculated as 18 %.

Photo 4. Collected materials separated from towels in erlenmeyer flask

Table-1. Cromotograms of materials

matter

towel

towel

towel

towel

towel

towel

towel

bathrobe

bathrobe

T-shirt

absorbed materials quantity (g)

151

102

225

420

394

139

179

596

545

49

2800

result of analysis pure cocain quantity (g)

cocaine 98.37

cocaine 68.02

cocaine 156.33

cocaine 279.04

cocaine 248.92

cocaine 114.53

cocaine 96.94

cocaine 404.38

cocaine 372.88

cocaine 29.01

1.868.47

weight of materials (g)

508

438

1068

1452

1472

734

876

1666

1654

296

10164




DISCUSSION

Because of Turkey has a stra-tegic location for the transit of narcotic substances from Europe to Asia and vice versa various quaint methods of co-caine smuggling have been ob-served such as placing cocaine into human body or an animal body in the form of cartridges. If symptoms of cocaine poiso-ning are present, removal of the drug packs should be done as soon as possible. The co-caine may be visualized with Computurized Tomography (CT) performed without intra-venous or oral contrast mate-rial Based upon the presenting signs and symptoms, toxicolo-gical tests can be used as well as imaging modalities to es-tablish the diagnosis of coca-ine “body packers” (18,19,24-27). But a transferring method of seized cocaine ready to be transferred as absorbed into towel, bathrobe and t-shirt as a smuggling method is the first event seen in the litera-ture like in this study.

This is the first study using a chemical method in order to detect cocaine in liquid form absorbed into different materi-als. Specifically in our study, we have to detect and then extract cocaine from absorbed materi-als.

Widespread abuse of cocaine is still one of the most common drug abuses that cause seve-re health and legal problems. Studies examining the inciden-

ce of cocaine in homicides have indicated that tests of 30–50% of homicide victims enlarge US cities were positive for cocaine and/or metabolites (28-30).

Systematic collection and eva-luation of data about the analy-sis of narcotic matters is very important for the struggle aga-inst presentation and demand of narcotic matters (31). Study of the illegal market trend is worthwhile because it can help not only to obtain useful infor-

mation about illicit drug typo-logies, but also to establish possible, valuable correlations with drug-induced death rates (32).

In the present study, we per-formed a chemical method in order to detect cocaine in liqu-id form absorbed into different materials. Our aim was to imp-rove the methods against diffe-rent smuggling techniques to

contribute the struggle against narcotics abuse.

CONCLUSIONS

In conclusion, few cocaine body packers required autopsy. Nar-cotic smuggling provides one of the most vital sources of criminal organizations and es-pecially of terrorist organizati-ons, which exist as unbalanced threats in all over the world. Various methods of smuggling are being used by these organi-

zations. In order to cut off from their financial sources, effec-tive strategies must be deve-loped and put into force in the fight against narcotics smugg-ling, using science and tech-nological innovations. Interna-tional collaboration also plays a vital role for the fight against narcotics smuggling. Moreover, the trained personal, systema-tic collection and evaluation of data is supplementary.

The cocaine may be visualized with Computurized Tomography (CT) performed

without intravenous or oral contrast material Based upon the presenting signs

and symptoms, toxicological tests can be used as well as imaging modalities to

establish the diagnosis of cocaine “body packers”


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Documents

THE CHEMICAL ANALYSIS OF SEIZED COCAINE READY ......Adli Tıp Dergisi / Turkish Journal of Forensic Medicine, Cilt / Vol.:24, Sayı / No:3 54 The Chemical Analysis of Seized Cocaine