The Argentine authorities estimated on Thursday that the situation was "stabilized" after having recovered a large part of a stock of adulterated cocaine.

The drug has already killed at least 22 people in Buenos Aires.

The chief of staff of the provincial government spoke of a “great tragedy” avoided thanks to the recovery of a “large quantity of doses” in twenty-four hours.

For his part, the provincial Minister of Health confirmed that the point of sale of cocaine, located in the suburbs of Buenos Aires, had been dismantled.

Violent and severe symptoms

Three traffickers from a local network on which the point of sale depended were arrested this Thursday at dawn.

Ten arrests had taken place the day before and eight suspects are still in detention.

Analysis of the drug has not yet identified what substance it was cut with, but authorities suspect "an array of opiate poisoning".

In ten different hospitals, 20 people are still on respiratory assistance after more than 80 hospitalizations since the night of Tuesday to Wednesday.

Other consultations - 214 in total - continued, "mostly for mild cases" with symptoms of altered consciousness, vomiting, malaise and headaches according to health authorities.

The day before, caregivers reported particularly violent and rapid symptoms: loss of consciousness, convulsions and even sudden cardiac arrest.

According to a minister, three people released from the hospital were "again hospitalized Thursday because they started to consume again".

An increase in cocaine use

For the Argentine Minister of Security, Anibal Fernandez, the drug problem in Buenos Aires is “as serious as it has always been”.

However, he notes the aggravating factor of “overproduction and oversupply” of low-cost, low-quality substances affordable to low-income or poor people.

Argentina has been a major destination for drug trafficking for several years.

In the 1980s, cocaine seizures reached half a ton a year.

Ten years later, this volume had quadrupled.

In 2017, a record 12.1 tonnes was seized, but the statistics have been falling for two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Miscellaneous facts

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Drugs: seizures up sharply in 2021, record figures for cocaine

  • Drug

  • Cocaine

  • World

  • Hospitalization

  • Argentina

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