Argentine police believe that the substance that adulterated the cocaine that left at least 24 dead in the last week in metropolitan Buenos Aires is carfentanil. The opioid, usually used to anesthetize elephants, was detected in the forensic examination carried out on samples seized in communities where the investigation indicates that the adulterated drug came out.
The result of the analysis was released this Thursday (10) by the newspaper ClarÃn, which had access to the report from the Munro Prosecutor’s Office, in the province of Buenos Aires, and from the Scientific Police laboratory in the capital. Later, the capital’s Prosecutor’s Office confirmed the information in a press release.
Until now, the authorities and experts interviewed by the press had fentanyl – also an opioid – as the main hypothesis for contamination.
“The results of the two independent expert studies […] concluded that the substance found in several samples is carfentanyl, an extremely strong opioid whose effects are 10,000 times stronger, or even more, than heroin or fentanyl,” the prosecution said.
The DEA, the US illegal drug control body, confirms that the substance can be 10,000 times more powerful than morphine, but says that compared to fentanyl it is 100 times more potent.
The result of the expertise takes the case to another level, due to the devastating power of what was seized. In September, for example, when police in California (USA) seized 21 kilograms of the substance, authorities said that, if mixed with other drugs, the amount of the opioid would be enough to kill up to 50 million people.
According to the DEA, carfentanil is so dangerous that only trained agents should handle it. Those who have contact with the substance for a few minutes may have difficulty breathing, feel dizzy, disorientated and drowsy, among other symptoms.
In Buenos Aires, part of the at least 24 dead and dozens hospitalized last week after using adulterated cocaine had problems breathing and standing and had convulsions, according to reports from family members.
The envelopes with the pink contents were sold for 200 pesos (R$ 10) in the town of simple, unfinished houses in Puerto 8, according to the local police – who carried out an operation in the community. Investigators believe that the tampering was done intentionally, within a context of conflicts between groups of traffickers.
Most deaths and hospitalizations were recorded in the cities of Hurlingham, Tres de Febrero, San MartÃn and Ituzaingó, in the metropolitan region of the capital. Most cases involve men between the ages of 31 and 45.
The Buenos Aires prosecutor even asked consumers who bought cocaine on the spot to discard the drug. The municipal government of Tres de Febrero made a similar recommendation, warning of “possible symptoms such as confusion, convulsions and loss of consciousness”.​
