- About 10 people were arrested after police raided a house where they believe the cocaine was sold.
- Officials warned those who bought the drug in the past 24 hours to throw it away.
- According to early reports, the victims suffered convulsions and sudden heart attacks.
Buenos Aires: At least 17 people died and 56 others were hospitalized in a northwestern suburb of Buenos Aires after consuming cocaine cut with a toxic substance, possibly opioids, authorities said on Wednesday.
Officials said they are working quickly to determine what the cocaine was mixed with, but warned those who bought the drug in the past 24 hours to get rid of it.
Sergio Berni, the security chief for the province of Buenos Aires, told Telefe television that authorities were trying to locate the toxic substance “in order to remove it from circulation”.
About 10 people were arrested after police raided a house in the poor neighborhood of Tres de Febrero, where they believe the cocaine was sold.
Packets of cocaine similar to those described by the victims’ families were seized.
The drugs were taken to a lab in La Plata, the capital of the province of Buenos Aires, for analysis.
Authorities issued an urgent warning early Wednesday after three separate hospitals reported several deaths and serious poisonings. Later in the day, eight hospitals treated patients.
Several of those treated told doctors that they had used cocaine together.
According to early reports, the victims suffered convulsions and sudden heart attacks.
At least four of the victims were men between the ages of 32 and 45, according to health authorities.
“There’s a key ingredient that attacks the central nervous system,” Berni said.
His office said late in the day that emergency services reported new patients being taken to the hospital in “critical condition”.
Berni explained that “any dealer who buys cocaine cuts it. Some make do with non-toxic substances like starch. Others put hallucinogens in it, and if there’s no kind of control, things like this happen.”
He said that on this occasion, however, the drug had been adulterated with a harmful substance as part of a “war between drug traffickers”.
San Martin’s prosecutor Marcelo Lapargo told Radio Miter that the authorities’ main concern “is to be able to communicate so that those in possession of this poison know not to consume it.”
Detectives fear the toll could rise as some people who bought the cocaine are unable to reach a care center in time.
Lapargo said this case was “absolutely exceptional”. He also said the idea of a battle between drug traffickers was a “guess” at this point.
Police briefly clashed with residents in an area of Tres de Febrero protesting the arrest of local youths in the drug raid.
