Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid and is a significant contributor to fatal and non-fatal overdoses in the United States.Even in small doses (2mg), it can be deadly. There are two types of fentanyl: pharmaceutical fentanyl and illicitly manufactured fentanyl (IMF), and both are considered synthetic opioids.
Elemental impurities are now used for source attribution since they do not break down compared to the organic components, and pharmaceutical products have tightly controlled metal contents. This process is achieved with the help of Inductively Coupled Plasma Mass Spectrometry (ICP-MS), which can identify metals based on their mass-to-charge values.
For this analysis, 100 mg of each of the 50 fentanyl samples, which were seized between 2021-2023 and in tablet form, was ground and the data from the ICP-MS was analyzed using JMP Pro 18. A statistical model that incorporated encoding, Pareto plots, K-means, and discriminant plots was developed to categorize the 50 samples into five distinct groups based on the metals data from the analysis. The categories proposed were labeled as “Too perfect,” "Sodium overload," "Pharmaceutical source," “Odd,” and "Clandestine source," determined by the presence and quantity of each of the 28 analyzed metals. By examining their metal content with the help of JMP, we can predict the pharmaceutical and illicit sources of these seized samples. This research will assist law enforcement personnel in combating criminal drug networks, including evolving crime patterns in pharmaceutical companies.
