University of Technology Sydney. Faculty of Science.Decisions by law enforcement agencies regarding crime disruption, prevention and reduction rely on significant volumes of information from various sources. There is a desire to use this information for generating intelligence to support proactive policing rather than reactively responding to crime. Utilising an existing proof of concept, this research explored the application of chemometric techniques to chemical profiles of state-level methylamphetamine seizures, acquired from the Australian Federal Police through the Enhanced National Intelligence Picture on Illicit Drugs capability. The main aim was to create and deliver a methodology that would expand the use of illicit drug profiling for strategic and operational intelligence purposes, to be more effective in the fight against illicit drug trafficking.
The use of comparison metrics and clustering analysis to determine links between illicit drug specimens was evaluated and automated. The scores resulting from comparison metrics were evaluated through two established approaches, i.e. deterministic and Bayesian approaches. Results showed that using the two approaches in combination provided more information about linkages than when either approach was used independently.
Relational, temporal, spatial and quantitative analyses were subsequently used to gain an insight into illicit drug markets. Relational analysis identified clusters of seizures central to the network. Temporal analysis then provided insights into the behaviour of distribution markets, specifically the emergence and extinction of certain groups of seizures over time. Finally, spatial analysis aided the understanding of the inter-jurisdictional nature of illicit drug markets. These analyses allowed for the generation of strategic intelligence relating to when and where the Australian illicit drug market was the most active. Additionally, the strategic level trends identified clusters of seizures which were worth investigating further. These clusters were explored through a case study to provide drug market knowledge at an operational level.
The presentation forensic case data, for intelligence or court purposes, typically involve the preparation of static reports. The final aim of this project was the creation of a visualisation tool, which was created to enhance the way processed data was conveyed. This tool was produced in the form of a web application and was used to aid the exploration of drug markets. It provided an automated way of analysing the forensic case data and producing relevant visualisations in an interactive and timely manner
