The balance sheet is getting heavier. Cocaine adulterated in Argentina killed 24 people on Friday evening February 4, while 23 people remained hospitalized in the greater Buenos Aires area, the province’s health ministry announced.
A previous report reported 23 deaths, before the death of a person who had been hospitalized on respiratory assistance, according to a press release from the ministry, which specifies that eight patients are still intubated at the hospital.
The victims had consumed doses obtained from a known outlet in “Puerta 8”an urban extension resembling a slum, in the popular suburb of Loma Hermosa, about 40 km from the center of the Argentine capital.
They died for the most part far from the point of sale, twelve of them at home, before they could be hospitalized, either because they were alone, or because of the overwhelming effects – vascular, cardiac in particular – of the adulterated drug. Two other people died on the public highway.
More than 200 consultations
Thirteen people in total, arrested during various police operations since the start of the crisis, were to be heard by magistrates as part of the investigation into the origin of the murderous cocaine, indicated judicial sources quoted by the agency. Argentinian public Telam.
Among them is a known leader of a local drug trafficking network in the northwest of greater Buenos Aires, a 33-year-old man nicknamed “El Paisa” (The peasant). But at this stage, no link between the suspect and killer cocaine has been confirmed.
The substance with which the drug was cut has not yet been identified in the laboratory, but authorities believe it is an opiate derivative.
More than 200 consultations have taken place since the night of Tuesday to Wednesday for people who have used adulterated cocaine, presenting symptoms of varying degrees of severity. Among them are “Three people released from hospital after poisoning (and who) had (been hospitalized) again on Thursday because they started to consume again”Provincial Health Minister Nicolas Kreplak told reporters on Thursday.
More than 20,000 doses of cocaine have been recovered during various police operations since the intoxication, without the proportion of them contaminated being established. But several of these doses, in a small pink nylon package, looked the same, according to the prosecution.
Massive intoxication has cruelly brought to light the strong presence of cocaine, even in the most underprivileged sectors of greater Buenos Aires. According to provincial security minister Sergio Berni, at least 250,000 doses, a low estimate, are sold there every day.