The Argentine authorities urged citizens not to use cocaine purchased in recent days
Photo: Directorate General of Customs / Reuters
The Argentine government has called on its citizens to stop using cocaine purchased in the last few days. This is reported by The Guardian.
According to the authorities, a batch of low-quality substances has recently spread in the province of Buenos Aires. The drug from this batch causes people to stop breathing and heart within an hour after use. At the moment, 23 people have died because of the drug, and 84 more people are in intensive care. The government also warned that the death toll due to low-quality cocaine could rise.
According to the Minister of Health of the province of Buenos Aires, Nicolas Krepla, it was possible to avoid a large number of victims thanks to artificial ventilation devices (ventilators), which appeared in sufficient numbers in hospitals due to the coronavirus pandemic. Thanks to this, 20 people were able to connect to the ventilator.
The Argentine government suggested that the cocaine was manufactured in an artisanal way. Something could have been mixed into it to reduce the cost of the drug. After the arrest of the alleged dealer of the substance from Paraguay, Joaquino Aquino, 15,000 packages of cocaine were confiscated from him.
Earlier it was reported that the Argentine police arrested nine suspects in the incident. Investigators suggested that poison was added to the cocaine or diluted with another substance. At the same time, law enforcement officers believe that in this case the substance was deliberately diluted as part of the war between drug cartels.
