Eight police officers have been dismissed after half a ton of marijuana vanished from a warehouse – and they claimed ‘mice had eaten it’.
The team, who worked for the force in Pilar, Argentina, were investigated after the drugs disappeared.
They had been in storage for at least two years when a chunk vanished.
In total, 6,000kg of marijuana was registered in the warehouse two years ago, however this year only 5,460kg remained.
Suspicion then fell on former police commissioner Javier Specia, who had quit the force in 2017.
Appearing in front of a judge, Specia and three of his subordinates all said the missing drugs had been ‘eaten by mice’.
According to The Guardian, he left the inventory for the impounded marijuana unsigned when he left.
The shortfall, however, wasn’t noticed until commissioner Emilio Portero joined the force a short while later.
Appearing in front of a judge, Specia and three of his subordinates all said the missing drugs had been ‘eaten by mice’.
However the claims were doubted by forensic officers who said ‘even a large amount of rodents couldn’t have eaten so much’.
A spokesman for the judge said: ‘Buenos Aires University experts have explained that mice wouldn’t mistake the drug for food.
‘If a large group of mice had eaten it, a lot of corpses would have been found in the warehouse.’
The remaining four officers will be made to testify before the judge on May