At least 20 people have died and dozens were rushed to hospital in Buenos Aires after taking cocaine laced with a toxic substance.
Urgent lab tests are underway to find out what substance the drug was cut with, but it is understood to ‘attack the central nervous system’.
Anyone who bought cocaine in the Argentinian capital in the last 24 hours has been urged to throw it away.
The alarm was raised early on Wednesday after three separate hospitals reported several deaths and serious cases of poisoning.
Those affected come from the Hurlingham, Tres de Febrero and San Martín districts.
Initial reports suggested 12 people had died and 50 were in hospital, but this has risen to 20 fatalities and 74 patients admitted to eight hospitals across the city.
Beatriz Mercado found her 31-year-old son lying face-down on the kitchen floor. ‘He was almost not breathing, his eyes were rolling back,’ she told AFP.
She rushed him to hospital where he remains on life support. ‘I hope in God, nothing else,’ she added, saying she was praying for a ‘miracle’.
Four victims have been identified as Hernán Castro, 45, Martín López, 36, Dino Melgarejo, 33, and Fernando Yacante, whose age was not given, the Buenos Aires Times reports.
Security minister Sergio Berni said the authorities are trying to locate the toxic substance and ‘remove it from circulation’.
‘There is a key ingredient that is attacking the central nervous system,’ he said.
Ten people have so far been arrested after police raided a house in the Tres de Febrero neighbourhood where they believe the cocaine was sold.
Drug packets similar to those described by the victims’ families were seized and have been sent to a laboratory for analysis.
‘Every dealer that buys cocaine cuts it,’ Mr Berni said.
‘Some do it with non-toxic substances such as starch. Others put hallucinogens in it, and if there is no form of control, this kind of thing happens.’
But on this occasion, the drug was cut with a harmful substance as part of a ‘war between drug traffickers’.
Police fear the death toll could rise even further in the desperate search to find people who’ve bought the cocaine.
A 2019 study on drug consumption in the Americas found Argentina had the third-highest rate of cocaine consumption after the US and Uruguay.
Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].
For more stories like this, check our news page.
Source: Read Full Article