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Trends in Analytical Chemistry, Vol. 27, No. 4, 2008

Analytical methods to determine cocaine contamination of banknotes from around the world
S. Armenta, M. de la Guardia
The presence of cocaine in a signicant number of UK pounds (), Euros () and North American banknotes ($) in general circulation requires appropriate tools to do determinations. This article discusses the-state-of-the-art in the analysis of cocaine on banknotes. We summarize the usual extraction methods of currency samples and compare them, especially with respect to avoiding sample damage. We critically discuss analytical methods, namely gas chromatography (GC) and liquid chromatography (LC), capillary electrophoresis (CE), immunoassay, thermal desorption tandem mass spectrometry (TD-MS2) and ion-mobility spectrometry (IMS). We also review cocaine levels on banknotes around the world and their possible relationship with drug consumption. 2008 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Keywords: Banknote; Cocaine; Paper currency

1. Introduction
S. Armenta, M. de la Guardia*, Department of Analytical Chemistry, Research Building, University of Valencia, 50th Dr. Moliner St., E-46100 Burjassot, Valencia, Spain

Corresponding author. Tel.: +34 963 544 838; Fax: +34 963 544 838; E-mail: miguel.delaguardia@uv.es

Around the world, cocaine is one of the most widely used illicit substances [1], which has soared in popularity. The 2007 UNO world drug report revealed that an estimated 14.3 million citizens are cocaine users (0.3% of the total population between 15 and 64 years old). Consumption of cocaine has increased signicantly in Europe. In Africa, notably in the countries of western Africa, cocaine use has also increased. Overall, cocaine consumption levels in Europe are still signicantly lower than those in North America. However, Spain recently reported that, for the rst time, the prevalence level of cocaine exceeded that of the USA in 2005. In the past 10 years, several studies have demonstrated that a signicant number of UK pounds (Xxxx), Euros () and North American banknotes ($) in general circulation have carried traces of cocaine. Those studies have had a big

impact in society as reected in the following news items in the press:  More than 99% of the banknotes in circulation in London are tainted with cocaine [2];  German euros full of cocaine [3]; and,  Cocaine found on all Irish bank notes [4]. These ndings should not be surprising, because cocaine and other drugs are traded using cash, which is handled by the same ngers that directly touch the drugs or wrappings. Moreover, many cocaine users use a wrapped banknote to sniff this drug, so inducing direct cocaine contamination of the banknotes. In this sense, cocaine residues left on banknotes could help to reveal the habits of drug users around the world, as well as offering law-enforcement agencies the possibility of differentiating drug money from innocent money in general circulation [5]. As can be seen in Fig. 1, there were scarcely any references in the literature relating to analytical procedures for the determination of cocaine on banknotes until 1994, but they have grown signicantly with 1.8 papers per year in 1994 2003 and 4.5 papers per year in 2005 07. This increasing interest may be due to improvements in development of equipment, together with the popularity of cocaine throughout the world. The aim of this review is to outline methodologies developed for extraction and determination of cocaine on banknotes around the world, to highlight the main advantages and drawbacks of available methodologies and to compare the gures of merit of the different analytical procedures.

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30

Cumulated number of papers

CE 4% TD-APCI-MS 26%

DESI-MS Immunoassay 4% 4% GC 40%

Rate = 4.5 papers/year

25 20 15 10 5 0

LC 7%

IMS 15%
Rate = 1.8 papers/year

1989

1991

1993

1995

1997

1999

2001

2003

2005

2007

Year
Figure 1. Evolution of the published literature about cocaine on banknotes. Inset: Distribution of techniques employed to determine cocaine. GC, Gas chromatography; IMS: Ion-mobility spectrometry; LC, Liquid chromatography; TD-APCI-MS, Thermal desorption-atmospheric pressure chemical ionization-mass spectrometry; CE, Capillary electrophoresis; DESI-MS, Desorption electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry.

The data used in this study has come from a combination of SciFinder Scholar [6], which allows access to databases from the Chemical Abstracts Service (CAS) and the US National Library of Medicine, and the Science Citation Index (SCI) database of the Institute for Scientic Information (ISI, Philadelphia, PA, USA). 2. Milestones From a general point of view, the technical evolution of analytical sciences can be summarized by establishing different key milestones or inexion points. As can be seen in Table 1, the use of gas chromatography (GC) or liquid chromatography (LC) for the determination of cocaine on banknotes can be considered the rst inexion point in the evolution of the analysis of drugs in paper currency.

The second milestone relates to the dramatic reduction in the time of analysis by the introduction of screening techniques; such as ion-mobility spectrometry (IMS) or thermal desorption tandem mass spectrometry (TD-MS2). These methodologies have improved the productivity of analytical and forensic laboratories, reducing times of analysis and sample preparation. And, nally the last milestone in the analysis of cocaine on banknotes relates to the improvement in instrumentation. The use of chromatographic techniques coupled with MS2 (GC-MS2 or LC-MS2) has contributed to improvement in sensitivity, selectivity, repeatability and quantitative recoveries, thus providing tools for qualitative, semi-quantitative and quantitative analysis of cocaine on banknotes at extremely low levels of concentration.

Table 1. Milestones in the determination of cocaine in banknotes Year 1987 1995 1997 First use of GC-MS for the determination of cocaine in banknotes. Development of a procedure based on LC-MS for the determination of cocaine in banknotes. In the same paper, a screening method based on IMS was employed. Introduction of the methodology called TD-APCI-MS for the analysis of cocaine in currency. Development of a semi-quantitative method for the screening of cocaine in banknotes based on an immunochemical detection process that uses antigen-gold conjugates. First use of GC-MS2 for the determination of cocaine in banknotes to improve the sensititvity of the measurements. Validation of the proposed method. Development and validation of the rst methodology based on CE-ECL for the analysis of cocaine in spiked paper currency. Development of a validated procedure based on LC-MS2 that improves the analytical sensitivity of previously proposed methods. New method of analysis of cocaine in banknotes by mass spectrometry using DESI-MS. Ref. [7] [8] [9] [10] [11] [12] [13] [14]

2005

2007

CE-ECL, Capillary electrophoresis-electrochemiluminiscence; DESI-MS, Desorption electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry; GC-MS, Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry; IMS, Ion-mobility spectrometry; LC-MS, Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry; TD-APCI-MS, Thermal desorption-atmospheric presure chemical ionization-mass spectrometry.

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3. Extraction Various methods have been used for the removal of cocaine from banknotes, including vacuum sampling, direct TD and solvent extraction. 3.1. Vacuum systems In this type of sampling system, cocaine is collected from the surface of banknotes by portable domestic vacuum cleaners that trap the analyte onto a small lter (quartz lters coated with dicyanoallyl silicone (OV275) gum) held at the end of a vacuum cleaner hose [15]. Vacuum techniques allow on-site sampling. However, the low efciency of removal, meaning that this technique is considered semi-quantitative, generally renders this approach unsuitable for analyzing individual notes. The main advantage of this technique is that it does not require portable analytical equipment, avoids handling samples and inhibits the possibility of contamination of the samples during transport to the laboratory. 3.2. Direct thermal desorption (TD) A limitation of analyzing bundles of banknotes is that it is not possible to discount the hypothesis that the response observed is derived from contamination of a single note. In this sense, there has been developed a simple apparatus that comprises two heated metal plates (at 285C) and a transfer tube [16]. A banknote is inserted between the two heated plates for 1 s, liberating volatile material and drawing it into the atmospheric pressure chemical ionization (APCI) region. Gas-phase precursor-ion/product-ion transitions are monitored repeatedly. The presence of a compound is indicated by a rise in the response of the corresponding transitions. This extraction technique provides higher recoveries than the vacuum system, since direct TD volatilises cocaine dissolved in nger grease or deeply embedded in bres. It is about 1000 times more sensitive than vacuum collection. Direct TD has been employed coupled with MS2 in the study of (i) the distribution of cocaine on banknotes via counting machines [16], demonstrating the possibility of cross contamination between notes during counting processes in nancial institutions; (ii) the factors that inuence cocaine contamination on UK banknotes [17]; and, (iii) the determination of cocaine contamination on banknotes [18,19]. 3.3. Solvent extraction Cocaine could be extracted from banknotes in an effective way by using organic solvents or dilute acids. One of the rst precedents for the use of organic solvents was based on the extraction of cocaine from US dollars (US$) in a centrifuge tube with chloroform [20]. 346

The tube was capped and vortex mixed for 20 min. After that, the extraction solvent was transferred to a centrifuge tube and centrifuged for 10 min at 750 rpm. The greenish, clear, upper layer was transferred to a clean culture tube, evaporated to dryness at 60C under nitrogen and reconstituted in ethyl acetate. In a similar way, methanol [7,21], acetonitrile [22] and ethanol [23] were used to extract cocaine from banknotes after stirring by vortexing. A similar procedure was used for the analysis of cocaine in Euro banknotes () using methanol as extraction solvent [11,13]. It was found that methanol avoids problems related to the partial destruction of Euro banknotes that was found when using previous procedures. There was developed a procedure to extract cocaine from Canadian dollars (C$) based on ethanol extraction followed by a two-step liquidliquid extraction (LLE), one extraction with CHCl3/H2SO4 and, after addition of NaOH, a second extraction with CHCl3. The extract was evaporated and redisolved in ethyl acetate [24]. The main problem with this methodology was that it was very laborious and time consuming, and the recovery of cocaine was very low (35.6%). As mentioned above, dilute acids have been also used to extract cocaine from banknotes. In this sense, 0.1 M hydrochloric acid has been successfully used, in combination with solid-phase extraction (SPE), to extract cocaine from US dollars (US$) [25]. In another approach, Chinese banknotes were extracted with 0.01 mM acetic acid [12]; after 15 min, the banknotes were rinsed with 0.01 mM acetic acid to remove any remaining cocaine on the paper currency and the rinsing solution was also transferred into the same beaker. In recent studies, there have been comparisons of different extraction procedures for the determination of cocaine on banknotes; after optimizing extraction method, time of extraction and detection conditions [26]. Results showed that the best conditions to determine cocaine on banknotes were a 1-min extraction time, 5 mL 0.1M HCl, followed by 2 mL of 0.2M NH3, SPE and 2 mL of methanol as eluent. Regarding extraction with just methanol, authors commented [26] that it was simpler but the recovery was lower than the SPE method and the background counts were worse. Regarding the detection method, the authors proposed that extracted-ion chromatography offers 10 times better limits of detection (LODs) than total-ion chromatography. There has also been a comparison of a destructive technique combined with SPE and a non-destructive technique based on organic solvents [27]. From results obtained in this study, the non-destructive extraction technique based on the use of organic solvents was selected to determine the amount of cocaine on varying denominations. The main advantage of the

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non-destructive technique was the recoveries of all the strategies tested were quantitatively comparable. 3.4. Solid-phase extraction (SPE) In some cases, solvent extraction has been combined with SPE in order to remove co-extracted compounds, such as inks, oils, fats and greases or cosmetics. Cocaine was puried from the methanol [21] or acetonitrile [22] extract by SPE using copolymeric sorbents that contain hydrophobic and ion-exchange functional groups uniquely polymerized to a silica substrate (C8, C4 and C18). Such mixed mode separations allow maximum selectivity for extraction of acids, neutrals and bases, being ideal for both screening and conrmation, and analysis of virtually all drug categories. After conditioning the cartridges, sample extracts were added, followed by deionized water and 0.1 mol/L HCl. The cartridges were aspirated to dryness and methanol was added, and again aspirated to dryness. Methylene chloride was used to elute cocaine from the cartridges. After elution, hydrochloric acid in methanol was added to the mixture and evaporated to dryness. Extracts were reconstituted with chlorobutane and chlorodiuoroacetic anhydride, vortexed and heated at 70C for 10 min. Finally, hydrochloric acid in acetonitrile was added, extracts evaporated to dryness and reconstituted in ethyl acetate. A similar approach, which combined extraction of cocaine from the matrix with a dilute acid (0.1M HCl) and clean-up of the extract by using a mixed-mode solid phase, has been succesfully developed [25]. The above procedures provided a great deal of sample clean-up and a pre-concentration step. However, although SPE is especially suitable for analysis of biological samples, it seems unnecessary for analysis of paper currency.

(i) (ii) (iii)

nitrogen-phosporous detection (GC-NPD) [14]; single MS (GC-MS); and, MS2 (GC-MS2).

Usually electron impact mass detection is used [21,22,25], but positive chemical ionization mass detectors have also been proposed to do it [13]. In recent years, MS2 has been proposed for cocaine determination in Euro banknotes () [11] in order to increase the sensitivity of the determination. The GC-MS2 method provides an LOD of 0.15 ng/note, repeatability, as the relative standard deviation of 5 independent measurements of a cocaine standard of 1 ng/ml, of 6% and an analysis frequency of 4/h using only 20.5 ml of methanol per sample. The recovery studies made at spiked levels of 100 lg and 10 lg per note provided recoveries of 101 2% and 98 3% (n = 3), respectively. We can therefore conclude that GC-MS2 offers a sensitive, selective methodology to determine cocaine on banknotes. The major drawback of that method, and any method based on GC-MS, is sample preparation and analysis time required, compared with direct methods based on TD-MS2, immunoassay or IMS.

4. Analytical methods Analytical methods proposed for the determination of cocaine contamination on banknotes available in the published literature can be classied into two different groups: (i) those that use separation techniques, such as GC, LC, or capillary electrophoresis (CE), with different detectors; and, (ii) those that directly analyse banknotes using immunoassays, TD-MS2 or IMS. 4.1. Gas chromatography (GC) The analytical method most frequently used for determination of cocaine on banknotes is GCMS. However, there are several analytical methods available for the determination of cocaine contamination on banknotes that use GC and they could be divided into three different groups according to the detection system used:

4.2. Liquid chromatography tandem mass spectrometry (LC-MS2) The rst use of LC-MS for quantication of cocaine on banknotes was reported by Jordan and Donelly in 1995 [8]. These authors used IMS as a screening tool to detect cocaine on US currency (US$) and, in positive cases, cocaine was quantied using electrospray LC-MS or GC-MS using a deuterated internal standard. A methodology based on LC-MS2 was succesfully developed for the analysis of cocaine residues in Irish bank notes () [13]. For the separation of cocaine from other substances present in the matrix, a multi-step linear gradient of ammonium acetate (pH 4.5) and methanol was used as mobile phase. Two different columns were investigated for the separation (Zorbax Rapid Resolution HT Eclipse XDB-C18 50.0 2.1 mm id 1.8 mm particle size and Phenomenex Onyx monolithic C18 100.0 3.0 mm id). From this study, it was determined that the 20-cm monolithic column, which offered the highest N at acceptable mobile-phase ow rates and column backpressures, and had a higher overall capacity than the 10-cm monolithic column (thus allowing increased injection volumes for trace analysis), provided the best performance for the proposed application. The repeatability, determined by performing six replicate injections of a 0.10 mg/L standard solution, was 3.7%, while reproducibility, examined using six individually prepared 0.5 mg/L analyte solutions, was 4.9%. The LOD and the limit of quantitation (LOQ) were 4 pg/note and 14 pg/note, respectively. Recovery values obtained 347

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from the above procedure were 87 8%. The elution time of cocaine using the above conditions was 10 min. 4.3. Capillary electrophoresis (CE) CE with electrochemiluminescence (ECL) detection was proposed for the determination of the contamination of Chinese banknotes [12]. As above, cocaine was extracted from Chinese banknotes by using 0.01 mM acetic acid for 15 min. A high-efciency, on-column, eldamplied, sample stacking (FASS) technique was optimized to increase ECL sensitivity. The highest sample stacking was obtained when acetic acid was chosen for sample dissolution with electrokinetic injection. Under the optimized conditions, an LOD of 60 nM for cocaine was achieved. Relative standard deviations of the ECL intensity and the migration time were 4.44% and 0.12%, respectively. The method developed was successfully applied to determine heroin and cocaine on illicit drug-contaminated banknotes without any damage to the paper currency with a total electropherogram time of 6 min. Although the method was applied successfully, its lack of specicity compared to MS-based methodologies is noteworthy. 4.4. Immunoassay The gold-labeled, optically-read, rapid immunoassay (GLORIA) has been applied succesfully to the detection of controlled substances, such as cocaine on banknotes [10]. The technique is based on an immunochemicaldetection process that uses antigen-gold conjugates. It is ready in only 3 min and provides an LOD of ng quantities of cocaine. A positive test shows a pink coloration, which is stable for many months. Concerning the specicity of the technique, we need to highlight that, although the test responds to the parent compounds and many or all of the metabolites, uorescent compounds from other drugs, food additives, or residues from medical investigation techniques, could provide false-positive results. 4.5. Thermal desorption tandem mass spectrometry (TD-MS2) TD-MS2 is the second most commonly used methodology for the analysis of cocaine on banknotes. Although it is a rapid, sensitive technique in detecting controlled substances on banknotes and in discriminating between innocent money from general circulation and drug money, it cannot be considered a quantitative approach, because precise quantication has not been attempted due to the difculty of comparing responses from solutions with those from particulate materials trapped within the banknote matrix. TD-MS2 methods have the advantage of simple sample preparation, whereby dust from the banknotes is trapped on lters using a vacuum system, or cocaine is directly 348
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desorbed from the banknotes into the source of the mass spectrometer. Cocaine liberated from the lters produced intensely protonated molecular ions (m/z 304) and the specic gas-phase ion transitions were monitored to detect the presence of cocaine (m/z 304 to m/z 182, and m/z 304 to m/z 105) in the banknotes. This method provides high sensitivity with little contamination, so 50 banknotes can be analysed in a 4-min period. The LOD of the technique depends upon the total amount of material desorbed, as that may affect the ionization of any controlled substances present, but it is typically below 1 ng [12]. Electrospray ionization (ESI) and desorption electrospray ionization (DESI) sources have also been used in a miniature hand-held mass spectrometer for the detection of cocaine in different surfaces, including currency [14]. It can therefore be concluded that TD-MS2 methods provide the possibility of analyzing a great number of banknotes in a short time, but the main drawback is that the desorption procedure is not completely effective, so it does not provide an accurate reection of the levels of drug contamination on currency in circulation. 4.6. Ion-mobility spectrometry (IMS) IMS can reveal traces of controlled substances collected onto a lter paper, heated to vaporization, and ionized by electrons emitted by a 63Ni source. The time required for the ions to drift through an electric eld and impinge on a detector is measured, and the substances are identied by their drift time. It allows the analysis of cocaine in large quantities of banknotes using a vacuum sampling method, but it also allows the determination of drugs in individual banknotes by collecting surface swabs, which are analyzed by insertion into the vaporizer unit of the IMS, or by directly inserting the banknotes themselves [2830]. We need to mention that inserting the banknotes into the vaporizer unit is about 1000 times more sensitive than vacuum collection. IMS provides a sophisticated screening method capable of detecting ng amounts of drugs and is ideally suited to operating in the eld. However, the method suffers from the same drawbacks as TD-MS2, in that the desorption procedure is not completely effective and it is difcult to obtain precise quantitative results. However, due to the versatility, robustness, portability and little need for maintenance, IMS is widely used in airport and other security settings.

5. Analytical features of methodologies available As can be seen in the inset of Fig. 1, the most commonly used technique in the bibliography for the determination of cocaine on banknotes (40%) is GC with different detection systems (e.g., NPD, MS or MS2). This methodology has been used combined with different sample pretreatments (e.g., organic solvent extraction or dilute

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Table 2. Analytical features of the previously reported procedures for the determination of cocaine in banknotes Year 1987 1989 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 Method GC-MS GC-NPD // GC-MS IMS // LC-MS // GC-MS GC-PCI-MS GC-MS TD-APCI-MS Immunoassay GC-MS TD-APCI-MS IMS GC-MS IMS IMS GC-MS GC-MS TD-APCI-MS GC-MS2 TD-APCI-MS TD-APCI-MS CE-ECL GC-MS LC-MS2 TD-APCI-MS DESI-MS GC-MS Sample treatment Methanol Ethanol-CHCl3 CHCl3 extract. MetOH-SPE Vacuum // TD None HCl-SPE Vacuum TD ACN extract. TD TD Ethanol extract. MetOH extract. HCl/NH3/SPE None MetOH extract. None None Acetic acid extract. Organic solvent extract. Destructive-SPE MetOH extract. None None Water-ethyl acetate LOD (ng/note) <1 0.5 ng/mL >90 10 % RSD Recovery (%) 35.6 91.793 Semi-quantitative Semi-quantitative 95.2 Semi-quantitative Ref. [7] [24] [8] [20] [21] [9] [10] [25] [15] [29] [22] [28] [30] [23] [26] [16] [11] [19] [18] [12] [27] [13] [17] [14] [28]

1 0.25 1 ng/mL 0.25 0.25

3.4

2003 2005 2006

0.15

60 nM

4.44

Semi-quantitative 98101 Semi-quantitative Semi-quantitative 95.297.6

2007

0.004 ppb range

3.69

87 Semi-quantitative

CE-ECL, Capillary electrophoresis-electrochemiluminiscence; DESI-MS, Desorption electrospray ionization-mass spectrometry; GC-MS, Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry; GC-NPD, Gas chromatography-nitrogen phosphorous detection; GC-PCI-MS, Gas chromatography-positive chemical ionization-mass spectrometry; IMS, Ion-mobility spectrometry; LC-MS, Liquid chromatography-mass spectrometry; SPE, Solid-phase extraction; TD, thermal desorption; TD-APCI-MS, Thermal desorption-atmospherical pressure chemical ionization-mass spectrometry.

acid extraction alone or in combination with clean-up techniques, such as SPE or LLE). Table 2 provides an overview of the different methodologies developed for the determination of cocaine on banknotes, highlighting the main analytical features. As can be seen, most past methodologies are semi-quantitative studies for forensic purposes, with the main aim of differentiating between normal money and drugs money, and analyzing the factors and the distribution of cocaine contamination. As a result, analytical features (e.g., LOD, repeatability or recovery of the proposed methods) were not provided. From the quantitative methods for analysis of cocaine on banknotes, it can be seen that LC-MS2 provides the best LOD (0.004 ng/note), followed by GCMS2 (0.15 ng/note) and IMS (0.25 ng/note). In terms of recovery, it can be seen that the methodologies based on the extraction of cocaine with organic solvents followed by GC-MS analysis provide recoveries of 90101%, and this value is slightly lower in the LC-MS2 analysis.

6. Cocaine levels on banknotes around the world Taking into consideration the values reported by the UNO world drug report, where North America and Western/

Central Europe are the two main cocaine-consumption regions and the worlds largest cocaine seizures in 2005 were, once again, made by Colombia (most important productor country), followed by the USA, Venezuela, Spain, Ecuador and Mexico, we need to highlight that there is an unequivocal relationship between cocaine use and the cocaine level on banknotes (see Fig. 2). The country with the highest contamination of banknotes due to cocaine is the USA (with mean value levels in the range 2.8628.75 lg cocaine/note, depending on the year and the city). As can also be seen from Fig. 2, the highest cocaine levels in Europe can be found in Spanish Euros (), where 889 lg of cocaine was found in a banknote and the mean concentration was 155 lg/note (n = 16), compared with the lower levels of cocaine found on German Euros () (5 times less cocaine per note) and Irish banknotes () (the maximum concentration of cocaine in 48 samples being 0.576 lg). No quantitative data on UK have been found in published scientic literature, but some non-scientic reports [2,3] maintain that the cocaine level on UK banknotes () is signicatively lower than that obtained in Spanish banknotes (). However, semi-quantitative data from 1995 and 1999 suggest that 51% and 40%, respectively, of UK banknotes () in general circulation were cocaine contaminated with levels of 0.0011 lg/note,
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1500

1250
1327 Mean value (g/note) Maximum value (g/note)

1000

Minimum value (g/note)

Cocaine concentration in banknotes (g/note)

500
0.01 (cocaine conc. was higher than 0.1 g in 79% of samples) US (1996)

250

28.75 (n = 10)

923

25 0

US (1998) <0.05 (uncirculated banknotes were cocaine free)

0.00009 (uncirculated banknotes were cocaine free) 0.576

155 (n = 16)

Ireland (2007)

889

750

Switzerland (2000)

Canada (1989)

Spain (2005)

Germany (2003)

20

10.02

15

13

China (2006)

US (2001)

England

France

10

0.013

0.01

1.25

0 03 (n = 48) . 2.86 (n = 18)

0.2

0 Switzerland (2000) Canada (1989)

Figure 2. Concentration range of cocaine determined on banknotes from previously published studies. *No quantitative data are available in previously published literature (Semi-quantitative data from 1995 and 1999 suggest that 51% and 40%, respectively, of Sterling banknotes () in general circulation were cocaine contaminated with levels of 0.0011 lg/note, with the upper level found on conscated money being 0.0029 lg/note. In the case of Swiss banknotes, it was found that 6% of the currency (356 samples) was contaminated with cocaine (more than 1 ng)). **It should be mentioned that the case of determination of cocaine in Chinese banknotes is an articial case study, for which 100 banknotes in general circulation were exposed to heroin and cocaine to simulate banknotes associated with trafcking of drugs.

the upper level found on conscated money being 0.0029 lg/note. In the case of Swiss banknotes, it was found that 6% of the currency (356 samples) was contaminated with cocaine (with concentrations higher than 1 ng/note). The high cocaine levels on Spanish Euros () could be explained by Spain being the main entry point for cocaine coming into the European Union. This seems to be 350
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conrmed in the UNO report data regarding cocaine seizures in Europe in 2005, where Spain leads the list, followed by Portugal and The Netherlands, and in data about annual prevalence of abuse as a percentage of the population age, where Spain also leads the list of European countries, followed by England, Wales and Italy.

**China (2006)

Ireland (2007)

Spain (2005)

US (1996)

US (1998)

US (2001)

Germany (2003)

England

France

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7. Conclusions Cocaine is one of the most commonly used illicit drugs, so traces of cocaine have been detected on banknotes around the world, with the contamination possibly resulting through the exchange, storage, and use of cocaine in the presence of the currency. The use of different methodologies combined with several sample pre-treatments allows detection and quantication or semi-quantication of cocaine in money. For this, TD-MS2 has the advantages of being a simple, rapid technique with requisite sensitivity and selectivity. TD methods combined with MS2 or IMS provide the fastest sample pretreatment, with no solvent consumption, but they require additional energy to extract the analyte. However, both methods are considered semi-quantitative approaches due to problems over comparing responses from solutions with those from particulate materials trapped within the matrix of banknotes. Chromatography-based procedures offer the best validated methodologies for the quantication of cocaine on banknotes, the accuracy depending on the detector used and the sample pretreatment, especially the extraction step. The most common procedures for extracting cocaine from banknotes are based on using organic solvents, but also using dilute acids, alone or in combination with SPE. MS2 detection provides a structural ngerprint for analytes of interest so it can unequivocally identify the compounds present in a sample. In conclusion, nowadays there is available a set of analytical procedures that, depending on the analytical requirements, will permit scientists to select between the detection of cocaine in a fast way (TD-MS2, TD-IMS or immunoassay) or the quantication of this analyte with accuracy and precision (GC-MS, LC-MS or CE). References
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