The ability of two mass spectrometric methods, surface assisted laser desorption ionization mass spectrometry (SALDI-MS) and direct analysis in real time mass spectrometry (DART-MS), to detect the presence of 5 drugs in latent fingermarks has been examined. It was found that each drug could be detected with good sensitivity for marks resulting from direct finger contact with a glass probe by DART-MS or onto stainless steel target plates using SALDI-MS. In contrast, for latent marks lifted from 3 surfaces (ceramic tile, wood laminate and backing of adhesive tape), no drug could be detected in dusted marks on the surface of a commercial lifting tape by DART-MS due to high background interference from the tape material, whereas all the drugs could be detected by SALDI-MS on equivalent marks. Also, it was demonstrated that drug spiked latent fingermarks pre-dusted with regular fingerprint powder and lifted using conventional lifting tape could be redeveloped with carbon black doped silica particles to enable MS interrogation via SALDI-MS.
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