Cocaine Trafficking in Asphalt Material: An Unusual Report of Cocaine in Seized Drugs

Abstract

Cocaine is an illicit drug commonly found by law enforcement in seizures around the world. This paper describes a rare case of cocaine trafficking in asphaltic material, possibly in the form of cocaine hydrochloride. The material was found and seized in barrels during an operation conducted by the Brazilian Federal Police. The sample was initially extracted and resulted negative for cocaine via Scott’s Test, but further screening by gas chromatography coupled with mass spectrometry (GC-MS) confirmed the presence of cocaine. Afterwards, samples were subjected to quantitative GC-MS analysis. The concentrations of cocaine ranged from 0.11 to 1.53 ng/10 mg in the extracts of precipitate material found in the barrels. Considering that extraction efficiency was around 57.44%, it is estimated that 1.07 – 15.34% of barrel’s sediment weight was constituted by cocaine.