“Whoever has bought drugs in the last 24 hours, discard it”. This is the unusual warning that the Minister of Security of Buenos Airesafter what 20 people have died and more than 70 are hospitalized due to the consumption of adulterated cocaine.
This fact has caused a real public health crisis in the Argentine capital. The relatives are devastated and carry their anger against the Police, whom they accuse of not acting against the gangsters who sell these substances because they are “bought”.
In statements to the TN news channel, the attorney general in charge of the investigation in the Buenos Aires department of San MartÃn, Marcelo Lapargo, has stated that until now they do not know what substance it is adulterated with.
“This is absolutely exceptional. we have no precedent, which leads one to think that someone has included it (the other substance) intentionally. It is not an error in the processing of the material, or does not appear to be,” Lapargo said.
That is, the prosecution believes that the substance may have been poisoned as a result of a war between gangs.
“It could be a settling of accounts, but it is conjectural. I say that this is absolutely exceptional, it is not something that happens regularly so that I can compare it with another case and say ‘this is what happens in a settling of accounts between gangs’, because We have no record,” he said.
The health risk is serious: several suffer seizures and heart attacks and the authorities ask that if they have used drugs and feel breathing difficulties, they report to a hospital.
Go to a health facility immediately if you have increasing shortness of breath or tendency to sleep in case of having ingested cocaine in the last 24 hours,” says a letter from the Ministry of Health of the province of Buenos Aires.
So far, the Buenos Aires Police has arrested ten peopleall of them related to the alleged sale of the adulterated drug, and more than 20 raids have been carried out with more than 1,500 agents mobilized throughout the territory.
While the authorities advance in the identification of the substance and in its confiscation, prosecutor Lapargo has also joined the call not to consume it if one is in possession of it.
“Our anguish today is being able to communicate it in such a way that those who are in possession of this poison know that they do not have to consume it, that this wave of damage to health stops,” he assured.
Source: Lasexta
Mario Twitchell is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his insightful and thought-provoking writing on a wide range of topics including general and opinion. He currently works as a writer at 247 news agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the industry.
