Argentinian police officers fired after blaming rodents for missing marijuana

The disappearance of the drugs was discovered during an inspection of a police warehouse for impounded drugs. Photo / 123RF

Eight police officers from Argentina are out of work after they blamed mice for the disappearance of a massive stash of marijuana.

During an inspection of a police warehouse for confiscated drugs, it was discovered that more than half a ton of cannabis was nowhere to be found.

The drugs had been kept at the warehouse, located in Pilar, a town 60km from Buenos Aires, for two years.

According to police records, 6000kg of marijuana had been registered, but only 5460kg was found.

It was also discovered that former police commissioner Javier Specia had not signed the drug inventory when he resigned from his position in April last year.

The inspection was arranged after his replacement, commissioner Emilio Portero, noticed the discrepancy and notified the police force's internal affairs division.

Specia and three other members of the force told Judge Adrián González Charvay the drugs must have been "eaten by mice", The Guardian reported.

But forensic experts told the court their explanation was unlikely, and that if rodents had eaten the stash, it probably would have killed them.

"Buenos Aires University experts have explained that mice wouldn't mistake the drug for food, and that if a large group of mice had eaten it, a lot of corpses would have been found in the warehouse," said a spokesperson for the judge.

The four officers will testify on May 4, and the judge will need to determine if the missing cannabis was the result of "expedience or negligence".