Analysis carried out on the adulterated cocaine that recently caused the death of 24 people in Argentina allowed to detect the presence of carfentanila powerful opioid, reported official sources.
The Argentine Interior Minister, Aníbal Fernández, confirmed this Friday through Twitter that the substance found in the adulterated cocaine, whose consumption killed 24 people and caused severe intoxication in several dozen others, is carfentanil, a substance that “could only have entered the country illegally and smuggled,” he said.
Carfentanil was detected in analyzes carried out by two laboratories and, as reported by the Attorney General of the province of Buenos Aires, it is a “extremely strong opioid whose effects are 10,000 times stronger, or more, than heroin or fentanyl”.
The cases of death and serious intoxication due to the consumption of adulterated cocaine were detected earlier this month in several towns on the outskirts of Buenos Aires.
According to official data provided by the Government of the province of Buenos Aires, there are 21 fatalities for consuming the drug, although the Prosecutor’s Office counts another three.
In statements to the Telenueve channel, the Minister of Security of the province of Buenos Aires, Sergio Berni, said that carfentanil is “a sedative that is used in veterinary medicine and for large animals and is so powerful that it is only used for elephants and rhinos.”
“With the equivalent to the size of a grain of salt, death occurs instantlyin patients”, he warned.
For his part, the secretary of Criminal Policy of the Prosecutor of the province of Buenos Aires, Francisco Pont Verges, said that the investigators are “puzzled” with the discovery of this substance because there were no “records, no records, no intelligence reports warning of the possible entry of carfentanil into the country for these purposes”, nor is there abroad “many precedents on the use of this drug”.
“There are several hypotheses. One would tend to think that someone probably brought it to the country, wanted to do an experiment and made a mistake with the mixture. But it is still a hypothesis. There is still nothing in the investigation that indicates that this was the happened,” said Pont Verges in statements to the Todo Noticias channel.
The judicial investigation allowed to seize thousands of doses of the drug ready for consumption and that they were packaged in a similar way to those purchased by the victims.
Arrested linked to drug trafficking
In as much, affected by the consumption and survivors of the victims also contributed to the Justice samples of the drug consumed for its analysis in laboratories.
Half a dozen people remain detained in the framework of this case, suspected of supplying the adulterated cocaine, including an alleged drug leader named Joaquín Aquino, alias “El Paisa”, who had an arrest warrant since 2018.
Aquino testified this Thursday before the federal judge of the Tres de Febrero party in Buenos Aires, Juan Manuel Culotta, who also investigated Aldana Benítez, partner of “El Paisa”, and Mónica Altamirano, the woman’s sister, both also detained. (I)
Source: Eluniverso
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