At least 20 people died in Argentina and another 74 were hospitalized for the consumption of adulterated cocaine, Authorities from the province of Buenos Aires, where the incident took place, reported on Wednesday.
“We are aware of the existence of people with serious cases of intoxication due to supposedly adulterated cocaine consumption,” the municipality of Tres de Febrero said in a statement. in the province of Buenos Aires, and urged those who consume cocaine to discard it and be attentive to possible symptoms.
According to data from the province’s Ministry of Security, so far 20 people have been reported dead in five hospitals. The Health portfolio, for its part, indicated in its last official part that of the 74 patients hospitalized “18 are with mechanical respiratory assistance.”
The Provincial security forces arrested some suspected of selling the drug -which local media speculated was adulterated in the middle of a war between criminal gangs- after the first deaths occurred on Wednesday morning.
Some media reported that the cocaine would have been “cut” with a toxic substance.
“We are waiting for the laboratory results and the results of the investigations of the people who have been detained,” the provincial security minister told the media. Sergio Berni, urging that citizens who bought the substance in the last 24 hours choose to discard it to avoid further deaths.
As reported by TN, The Ministry of Health of the Province of Buenos Aires issued an epidemiological alert before the identification of the symptoms that appeared due to this intoxication in patients of health centers in the municipalities of Hurlingham, San Martín, Tres de Febrero, Morón, Tigre, Ituzaingó and General Rodríguez.
Signs of shock, seizures, paresthesias, bradypnea, sensory depression, respiratory distress, and psychomotor arousal are some of the signs. that the manipulated drug could cause, and that in the event that any person has ingested it in the last 24 hours, it is recommended to immediately attend a health facility.
Consulted regarding the deaths, and while the raids continue and the results of the analyzes and autopsies are awaited, the attorney general of San Martín, Marcelo Lapargo, He assured that the adulteration of the drug was intentional and released the story of one of the consumers.
“It is an exceptional event, we have no precedent. It makes us think that the substance was deliberately included, It’s not a process error.” the persecutor explained.
One of the hypotheses that is handled is that the incidents would have been caused after a settling accounts between drug gangs, in which a gang would have contaminated the product that its rivals sold.
In addition, after the first tests, everything indicates that the points of sale would be located in the settlement “Puerta 8″, in the Loma Hermosa sector of Tres de Febrero. The Buenos Aires Police carried out raids in the place, where they would have A dozen suspects were arrested, doses similar to the evidence provided by relatives of the victims were seized, in addition to items related to the crimes such as money, telephones and a gun of compressed air, reports Clarín.