New techniques help trace heroin

Opium produced in Afghanistan supplies 93% of Britain's heroin

Forensic profiling has been developed in Glasgow to help trace the source of heroin arriving on the streets of Scotland.

The Scottish Police Services Authority is analysing seized drugs to identify where they were processed and stored.

Scientists from the authority are also studying the cutting or diluting agents to build a profile of the supply chain.

About 93% of the heroin in Britain comes from Afghanistan and enters the country via the English Channel.

Gordon Meldrum, director general of the Scottish Crime and Drugs Enforcement Agency, said: "It's being processed in Afghanistan or generally in Turkey and sometimes in Pakistan.

"It will generally be concealed within a heavy goods vehicle, but sometimes within a private vehicle or a smaller van.

"It is then ready to be separated, sometimes known as slaughtered within the trade, and put into separate batches to go on different routes to the United Kingdom."

Police believe three main routes are used to transport the drug to the Balkans.

Once there it is taken through mainland Europe to Channel ports.

Intelligence is less clear, however, on the location of the laboratories which process raw opium into heroin, and who is involved in delivery.

Scientists from the Scottish Police Service Authority are now analysing recent seizures of heroin.

They hope that DNA and fingerprints found on packaging will provide a picture of where the drug is being warehoused.

Evidence of the material used to adulterate the opium will also strengthen intelligence about where it is being processed.

Drug profiling

By comparing samples, detectives hope to work out where the supply chain splits and who is involved.

The forensic work is being done under the direction of Tom Nelson who said the aim was to discover where heroin was being manufactured.

"Depending on the manufacturing routes we can actually tell a bit more about where the drug came from," he said.

"As we do more profiling on drugs we can tell, potentially, the route that that drug has travelled to get on to the streets of Scotland."

Bob Lauder, deputy director in Scotland of the Serious and Organised Crime Agency, said any new information would be of great use to its 200 officers posted in 40 countries throughout Europe and Asia.

"If you do a forensic analysis we can then identify commonality of product which takes us back to single suppliers, single warehousemen, and those people who produce it," he said.

"We can actually use that to better inform where the chain meets together and separates and that makes our future intelligence better."

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