Marijuana eaten by mice, say Argentina police officers Published duration 12 April 2018

image copyright AFP/Getty image caption Experts said mice would die if they ate marijuana

Eight Argentine police officers have been dismissed for blaming missing drugs on mice.

Investigators discovered 540kg (1,191lb) of marijuana missing from a police warehouse in Pilar, north-west of Buenos Aires.

The city's former police commissioner, Javier Specia, and fellow officers told a judge the drugs were "eaten by mice".

Forensic experts doubted mice would see the drugs as food, and would have probably died if they had eaten it.

A spokesperson for Judge Adrián González Charvay said that according to experts at Buenos Aires University, "mice wouldn't mistake the drug for food" - and even if they did, "a lot of corpses would have been found in the warehouse".

The police officers will now testify in front of the judge on 4 May.

The court will decide if the drugs are missing due to "expedience or negligence".

image copyright Reuters image caption Marijuana in small amounts is decriminalised in Argentina for personal use

A 6,000kg haul of marijuana has been in storage at the warehouse for the past two years.

But Mr Specia's successor, Emilio Portero, noticed the missing drugs when he took over the commissioner role.

Mr Portero alerted the police force's internal affairs division, who then searched the warehouse and found only 5,460kg remaining.

Suspicion fell on Mr Specia after authorities discovered he did not sign the inventory for the impounded drugs when he left his post in April 2017.

The former commissioner is also reportedly under investigation for not yet filing a sworn income statement for last year.

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