Relatives and friends of people who were poisoned with adulterated cocaine cry after talking to doctors outside the emergency room of a hospital in the outskirts of Buenos Aires, Argentina, Wednesday, Feb. 2, 2022. (Photo:Rodrigo Abd via AP)
“They're all dying,” a woman says. “We don't know why.”The audio published by Argentine outlet M1 records a flummoxed nurse working in a hospital in a Buenos Aires suburb Wednesday morning as a flood of cars and ambulances began showing up. By Thursday morning, authorities said that 20 people had died, while another 84 have been hospitalized after consuming adulterated cocaine.Authorities scrambled to hold down the death toll. While authorities have yet to determine what was mixed with the cocaine, Buenos Aires Security Minister Sergio Berni told anyone who had “bought drugs in the last 24 hours to discard what they bought.” He warned that the death toll could rise.The police initially suggested that the drugs may have been intentionally poisoned in a drug dispute between rival gangs, but later distanced themselves slightly from that theory as the investigation continued. There have been suggestions in the media that the cocaine may have been spiked with fentanyl—a synthetic opioid 50 times more powerful than heroin. Argentina is not known to have previously had many issues with fentanyl consumption. Local media reported that tests by local authorities had failed to find the substance that had been added to the cocaine and were asking federal authorities for help.The sick began arriving at hospitals scattered primarily around a group of rough suburbs on the outskirts of northwest Buenos Aires. Authorities alleged that the drugs came from the Tres de Febrero neighborhood, in a well-known drug den known as “The bunker,” according to prominent Argentine newspaper La Nacion.An alleged Paraguayan gangster based in Argentina, Joaquín Aquino, who is known as “El Paisa” was arrested shortly after the deaths under suspicion of having sold the drugs. In a series of raids, police confiscated 15,000 doses of cocaine that were wrapped in the same packaging that authorities recovered from survivors, local media reported, citing police sources. Other Argentine media have pointed out that El Paisa is not known to operate in the area where the drugs reportedly came from.
Advertisement
