Authorities are working to remove a tainted batch of cocaine from the streets of Argentina after at least 20 people were found dead after taking it.
Sergio Berni, security minister for the Buenos Aires Province, said Thursday that a synthetic opioid appears to have been added to intensify the effects of the cocaine, according to the Associated Press. In addition to the dead, health officials said at least 84 people have been hospitalized, many of whom are younger Argentines from poorer neighborhoods around the nation’s capital, Buenos Aires.
“Indirectly, we know it is an opioid because the antidote is administered (to patients), and they react,” Berni said.
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Authorities have encouraged people who recently bought drugs not to use them. Berni told people to “discard what they bought,” according to the Guardian.
Police said the cocaine was sold in the Puerta 8 neighborhood in San Martin, a suburb of Buenos Aires, where a dozen arrests have been made.
“We Argentines cannot let this situation pass us by without starting to understand, on one hand, the phenomenon of narcotrafficking and, on the other, addiction,” Berni said. “Often they go unnoticed. Often they hide beneath the rug. They must be made visible in order to deal with them in a more efficient way.”
San Martin Attorney General Marcelo Lapargo told cable channel Todo Noticias this is an “absolutely exceptional” situation.
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“There must be a lot of people with a bag in their pocket, and the number of people hospitalized shows that the most important thing is to stop this extremely high risk,” Lapargo added.
