Cocaine smuggling techniques vary according to the organization and the point of origin. One common method for smuggling this drug is to dissolve cocaine in bottles of wine or rum. A recent Science Daily release examines findings from two research teams that have found two techniques to identify when this method has been used.

Customs officials often have difficulty identifying whether or not a drug has been dissolved within a bottle of alcoholic liquid. When this passes through without detection, lives could be at stake. In fact, a man in the UK died after he unknowingly drank from a contaminated bottle of run.

Now, these two techniques introduce a new method of detection that does not require the bottle to be opened or disturbed. When large shipments of alcoholic beverages are coming through customs, it can be expensive and time-consuming to open bottles for testing. A non-invasive approach can streamline the process while also avoiding an arousal of suspicion among potential smugglers.

One method relies on using Raman spectroscopy (RS), which identifies molecules with the use of laser light, and magnetic resonance spectroscopy (MRS), the technique behind clinical MRI scanners. Both techniques can be used to identify any cocaine that has been dissolved in any liquid for smuggling into the country.

Interestingly, the RS technique was identified by researchers from UK universities and involved using a portable scanner to test cocaine levels dissolved in liquid. This technique proved effective in all colors of liquid and a variety of colors of glass containers.

A Swiss research team conducted the MRS study, which involved testing bottles of wine. While the MRI scanner is not portal, a test can evaluate large cargo shipments at one time in just a few minutes to detect potential smuggling.