Twenty people were murdered and 74 others were hospitalised in Buenos Aires as a result of allegedly tainted cocaine, according to health officials. Authorities were scrambling to locate and seize the remaining batch of dangerous cocaine in order to remove it from circulation before it was ingested.
Experts were still examining the medicine to establish what exactly was in it that was causing the fatalities, which was still ongoing. A possible explanation being explored by prosecutors is that the cocaine was purposely tainted as part of a score-settling scheme between drug dealers, according to authorities.
Police reported that the cocaine was sold in the impoverished community of “Puerta 8” in San Martn, a suburb to the north of the country’s capital, and that a dozen individuals had been detained as a result of the investigation.
“This is an absolutely outstanding occasion. According to San Martin Attorney General Marcelo Lapargo, “we don’t have a precedence in our country.” “If the situation has deteriorated and the nature of trafficking has altered to the point where this has become normal, I really hope that I will never see it again.”
According to early reports, eight members of the same group died after purchasing the medication on Tuesday, according to Argentine officials. However, as time went on, the number of fatalities increased. In the early hours of Thursday, the province’s health ministry said that 20 individuals had died and 74 others were in the hospital, with 18 of them needing artificial breathing.
According to Lapargo, “the time has come to take the poison off the market and prevent it from being sold again.” “There must be a significant number of individuals carrying a bag in their pocket, and the number of persons admitted to hospitals demonstrates that the most essential thing is to prevent this incredibly high danger from occurring.”
According to the authorities, everyone who may have purchased the lethal medicine is cautioned not to use it.
Sergio Berni, the security minister for the province of Buenos Aires, has urged on “those who have purchased narcotics in the previous 24 hours to throw away what they have purchased.”
