Berliner Boersenzeitung - Race on to find laced cocaine that killed 20 in Argentina

EUR -
AED 3.993896
AFN 72.852991
ALL 98.24255
AMD 420.905929
ANG 1.960947
AOA 991.671397
ARS 1079.282118
AUD 1.652057
AWG 1.957246
AZN 1.846926
BAM 1.94988
BBD 2.196831
BDT 130.025259
BGN 1.955832
BHD 0.409741
BIF 3147.904053
BMD 1.087359
BND 1.431693
BOB 7.535332
BRL 6.298093
BSD 1.087997
BTN 91.511009
BWP 14.488415
BYN 3.560888
BYR 21312.234691
BZD 2.193202
CAD 1.511924
CDF 3092.448479
CHF 0.939543
CLF 0.037608
CLP 1037.732042
CNY 7.719266
CNH 7.741229
COP 4800.6896
CRC 558.404752
CUC 1.087359
CUP 28.815011
CVE 110.530289
CZK 25.333506
DJF 193.245019
DKK 7.457981
DOP 65.730702
DZD 144.63952
EGP 53.345282
ERN 16.310384
ETB 131.609273
FJD 2.474775
FKP 0.832013
GBP 0.839599
GEL 2.973911
GGP 0.832013
GHS 17.789084
GIP 0.832013
GMD 77.742974
GNF 9383.907106
GTQ 8.406479
GYD 227.834608
HKD 8.45166
HNL 27.25978
HRK 7.490848
HTG 143.185307
HUF 408.145063
IDR 17178.911623
ILS 4.078232
IMP 0.832013
INR 91.505983
IQD 1424.440176
IRR 45783.246635
ISK 148.903211
JEP 0.832013
JMD 171.918078
JOD 0.771043
JPY 165.44929
KES 140.269094
KGS 93.309373
KHR 4430.987743
KMF 492.031196
KPW 978.622776
KRW 1495.237642
KWD 0.333287
KYD 0.906772
KZT 531.655958
LAK 23856.655063
LBP 97427.357908
LKR 318.991581
LRD 208.609712
LSL 19.039377
LTL 3.210688
LVL 0.657733
LYD 5.229955
MAD 10.70719
MDL 19.422571
MGA 5018.161143
MKD 61.586053
MMK 3531.699333
MNT 3694.845616
MOP 8.710995
MRU 43.494145
MUR 49.833341
MVR 16.744658
MWK 1887.108312
MXN 21.86573
MYR 4.761
MZN 69.486158
NAD 19.039896
NGN 1787.389748
NIO 39.987619
NOK 11.964308
NPR 146.417534
NZD 1.821049
OMR 0.418662
PAB 1.088127
PEN 4.09744
PGK 4.359763
PHP 63.5692
PKR 302.122275
PLN 4.357336
PYG 8568.985619
QAR 3.958642
RON 4.975431
RSD 117.031371
RUB 107.647597
RWF 1483.157557
SAR 4.084062
SBD 9.031843
SCR 14.928378
SDG 654.044516
SEK 11.663229
SGD 1.435118
SHP 0.832013
SLE 24.710207
SLL 22801.369244
SOS 620.8821
SRD 37.955351
STD 22506.134126
SVC 9.520098
SYP 2732.022181
SZL 19.039502
THB 36.731166
TJS 11.58804
TMT 3.81663
TND 3.369723
TOP 2.546701
TRY 37.352983
TTD 7.375811
TWD 34.550285
TZS 2925.944714
UAH 45.097205
UGX 3981.911409
USD 1.087359
UYU 45.332377
UZS 13934.505168
VEF 3939014.785334
VES 46.542264
VND 27531.927672
VUV 129.093467
WST 3.045892
XAF 653.989612
XAG 0.032235
XAU 0.0004
XCD 2.938642
XDR 0.817341
XOF 652.963012
XPF 119.331742
YER 271.676051
ZAR 19.039481
ZMK 9787.541457
ZMW 29.187197
ZWL 350.129126
  • RBGPF

    5.4100

    66.41

    +8.15%

  • CMSC

    0.1100

    24.64

    +0.45%

  • CMSD

    0.1103

    24.92

    +0.44%

  • VOD

    -0.0300

    9.32

    -0.32%

  • RYCEF

    0.0200

    7.1

    +0.28%

  • NGG

    0.1900

    64.45

    +0.29%

  • SCS

    0.1100

    12.25

    +0.9%

  • RELX

    -0.0200

    47.06

    -0.04%

  • BCC

    0.0500

    134.26

    +0.04%

  • RIO

    -0.3200

    65.01

    -0.49%

  • JRI

    0.0500

    13.1

    +0.38%

  • BCE

    -2.9800

    29.12

    -10.23%

  • AZN

    0.0100

    71.43

    +0.01%

  • BTI

    0.0400

    35.11

    +0.11%

  • BP

    0.5000

    29.73

    +1.68%

  • GSK

    0.0900

    36.97

    +0.24%

Race on to find laced cocaine that killed 20 in Argentina
Race on to find laced cocaine that killed 20 in Argentina

Race on to find laced cocaine that killed 20 in Argentina

Investigators in Argentina raced Thursday to track down laced cocaine and remove it from circulation after 20 people died and dozens were sent to hospital poisoned.

Text size:

Officials fear the toll may rise with the discovery of people who did not make it to hospital in time.

Health authorities issued an "epidemiological alert" Wednesday after a sudden flurry of deaths in three poor, western suburbs of Buenos Aires among people who had taken cocaine officials believe may have been adulterated with opioids.

More than 80 were admitted to 10 hospitals, some in critical condition.

Officials, who have seized hundreds of packets of the doctored substance, urged anyone in the Buenos Aires area who had recently purchased cocaine to discard it.

"A substance of high toxicity, sold as cocaine, is in circulation," said the prosecutor's office of San Martin, one of the affected suburbs.

Beatriz Mercado, who lives in the suburb of Hurlingham, told AFP she found her 31-year-old son lying on the kitchen floor in the dark.

"He was almost not breathing, his eyes were rolling back," she said. She took him to the hospital, where he was put on life support.

"I hope in God... a miracle," said Mercado.

- 'We are desperate' -

Some of the victims, several of them men in their 30s and 40s, suffered violent convulsions and heart attacks, according to medical reports cited by media outlets.

The alarm was first raised when four people arrived at a hospital together, saying they had taken cocaine at the same event. All four died.

"We are desperate, we want to know why one person is dying after another here," Maria Morales told AFP outside the hospital where her brother-in-law was on life support.

A friend who was taking cocaine at the same gathering is dead.

In the precarious suburb of Tres de Febrero, where many youngsters are engaged in drug pushing, police on Wednesday detained about 10 people in a house where cocaine was allegedly being laced and distributed.

Packets of the substance similar to those described by the victims' families were seized amid brief clashes with residents.

The drugs are being analyzed to determine their composition.

- 'Absolutely exceptional' -

Buenos Aires provincial security chief Sergio Berni told the Telefe channel the as-yet unknown additive was something "that is attacking the central nervous system."

"Every dealer that buys cocaine cuts it. 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," said Berni.

He declined to speculate whether the adulteration may have happened as part of a "war between drug traffickers."

The San Martin public prosecutor, Marcelo Lapargo, said what happened was "absolutely exceptional."

"People say that this happens in Central America and other places but (here), the truth is, never. It could be a settling of scores but that is conjecture because there is no precedent," he told Radio Mitre.

Lapargo said the priority for now was "to communicate so that those who are in possession of this poison know that they should not consume it."

- Drug use rising -

Berni said that in the province of Buenos Aires, home to some 40 percent of the Argentine population of 45 million and with high poverty rates, about 250,000 doses of cocaine are sold every day.

Illegal drug use has been on the rise in Argentina. In the mid-1980s, half a ton of cocaine was seized every year -- a decade later it was four times that, according to official data.

In 2017, a record 12.1 tons of cocaine were seized in the country, but in 2020, the number fell to about 2.7 tons as consumption dropped during the pandemic.

Rosario, a city some 300 kilometers (186 miles) north of Buenos Aires, last year recorded 231 homicides linked to drug trafficking, according to the Telam national news agency.

(B.Hartmann--BBZ)