And along with that, some acetic acid.

Global drug testing capacities have been extended through the development of new precursor field tests, now being used successfully by Afghan forces for the identification of not only drugs and acetic anhydride, but also other non controlled substances used in the processing of heroin.

With regard to Operation Purple and Operation Topaz, the international initiatives for tracking shipments of potassium permanganate and acetic anhydride, the Commission noted that the monitoring of international trade in those substances, as a result of participating countries providing and responding to pre export notifications, had continued to function well.

In particular, the Commission recommended that the Steering Committee of that operation should identify specific action and explore ways to improve backtracking investigations of seized acetic anhydride, in order to track the substance back to its manufacturers the Committee should also examine the feasibility of tagging products to determine at which points along the distribution chain diversions were taking place.