Date of Submission

5-2026

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Science in Forensic Science

Department

Criminal Justice

Advisor

Brooke W. Kammrath, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Marisia Fikiet, Ph.D.

Committee Member

Pauline Leary, Ph.D.

Keywords

Fentanyl, Synthetic Opioids, Drug Overdose, Border Inspection, Portable Ion Trap Mass Spectrometer, Counterfeit Drugs

MeSH

Fentanyl, Analgesics, Opioid, Drug Overdose, Mass Spectrometry, Counterfeit Drugs

LCSH

Fentanyl, Opioids, Drug overdose, Border security, Mass Spectrometry, Drugs--Analysis

Abstract

The continually evolving and complex drug landscape presents a formidable challenge for first responders who need reliable tools for their detection and identification. Fentanyl is potent synthetic opioid analgesic used to manage pain, which recently became a significant public health threat due to the illicit drug market. In 2023, overdose deaths exceeded 100,000 in the United States, with over 70% of those involving a synthetic opioid such as fentanyl or tramadol (U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, n.d.a). These drugs are being transported to the United States across borders, and thus it has become a national priority to develop tools to help stop their proliferation (U.S. Customs and Border Protection, n.d.). Portable technologies provide the best potential for addressing this problem, with a specific emphasis on identification of fentanyl and its analogs in the field. This research involves analyzing 250 synthetic opioids and related substances, including 213 fentanyl analogs, to build a comprehensive fentanyl detection library for a portable ion trap mass spectrometer (1st Detect Tracer 1000) designed for rapid identification of drugs and explosives. Ion trap mass spectrometers operate by using electrostatic and radio frequency fields to confine charged particles. This offers high sensitivity, resolution, and the ability to study ion-molecule reactions. It was hypothesized that expanding the instrument’s library with a wide range of fentanyl analogs would improve classification and detection performance in real-world scenarios. While the instrument demonstrates strong capability as a general fentanyl detection and identification tool, further algorithm refinement is necessary to ameliorate analogue-class identification. Additionally, analysis of adjudicated seized drug samples demonstrate current real-world utility, with the instrument successfully identifying the correct drug substance for commonly encountered illicit drugs and detecting fentanyl at trace levels in complex sample matrices. This project aims to evaluate and ultimately improve the detection and identification capabilities of portable ion trap mass spectrometry for fentanyl, fentanyl analogs, and other synthetic opioids, thus supporting its use in high-security environments like airports and other border crossings.

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