On‐site forensic analysis of colored seized materials: Detection of brown heroin and MDMA‐tablets by a portable NIR spectrometer

The increasing workload for forensic laboratories and the expanding complexity of the drug market necessitates efficient approaches to detect drugs of abuse. Identification directly at the scene of crime enables investigative forces to make rapid decisions. Additionally, on‐site identification of the material also leads to considerable efficiency and cost benefits. As such, paperwork, transportation, and time‐consuming analysis in a laboratory may be avoided. Near‐infrared (NIR) spectroscopy is an analysis technique suitable for rapid drug testing using portable equipment. A possible limitation of spectroscopic analysis concerns the complexity of seized materials. NIR measurements represent composite spectra for mixtures and diagnostic spectral features can be obscured by excipients such as colorants. Herein, a NIR‐based (1300–2600 nm) detection of heroin and MDMA in colored casework (i.e., brown powders and ecstasy tablets) using a portable analyzer is presented. The application includes a multistage data analysis model based on the net analyte signal (NAS) approach. This identification model was specifically designed for mixture analysis and requires a limited set of pure reference spectra only. Consequently, model calibration efforts are reduced to a minimum. A total of 549 forensic samples was tested comprising brown heroine samples and a variety of colored tablets with different active ingredients. This investigation led to a >99% true negative and >93% true positive rate for heroin and MDMA. These results show that accurate on‐site detection in colored casework is possible using NIR spectroscopy combined with an efficient data analysis model. These findings may eventually help in the transition of routine forensic laboratories from laboratory‐based techniques to portable equipment operated on scene.