The FBI recently announced that the “crystal-like substance” discovered in the van belonging to Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a 52-year-old man fatally shot by an ICE agent in Houston earlier this month, is not an illegal drug. This confirmation comes from U.S. Representative Sylvia Garcia, the Harris County District Attorney’s Office, and a lawyer representing Salgado Araujo’s brother.
<p“After thorough investigation, we can confirm that the substance found in Lorenzo Salgado’s van was not a narcotic or any illegal substance,” Garcia stated on social media, although she did not disclose her information source. “As his family has maintained, this was simply an electrolyte powder intended for hydration while working outdoors in the intense Texas heat. Attempts to tarnish Lorenzo Salgado’s reputation have been unsuccessful.”
The District Attorney’s Office, while not disclosing the specifics of the test results—which the FBI has yet to make public—indicated that they were informed lab tests of the substance returned negative results for narcotics or illicit drugs.
Ruby Powers, an immigration attorney in Houston representing Victor Hugo Salgado Araujo, Lorenzo’s brother, stated that the Texas Department of Public Safety informed the family that preliminary tests indicated the substance was not an illegal drug. She noted that complete lab results are expected to be released on Monday.
<p“An unverified claim was allowed to circulate before testing was completed, and the manner in which it was publicized has caused significant harm, distracting from the critical issues at hand. Lorenzo was shot, and no lab report resolves that,” Powers remarked.
The U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of Texas stated it currently has no further information to share, while a spokesperson for the Department of Public Safety mentioned that they would not comment on the ongoing investigation. The FBI and the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, which are looking into the shooting incident, did not respond promptly to inquiries.
In an affidavit filed to obtain a search warrant, the FBI disclosed that an agent observed plastic bags in Salgado Araujo’s van, suspecting they contained methamphetamine. FBI Special Agent David McNeilly stated in the affidavit that the three “small clear plastic bags” matched common practices for how drug users package controlled substances for distribution and possession.
This search warrant application was made public unusually quickly, a day after being filed in court, as federal agents typically do not disclose such information before completing a search.
Powers previously mentioned that the bags contained granulated salt, which the group used to create a homemade electrolyte drink for hydration during work in the summer heat.
Another attorney, Hugo Balderas-Ibarra, representing two other individuals in the van, also confirmed on social media that his clients reported no illegal drugs were present in the vehicle, noting they occasionally carried salt to mix with water to avoid cramps.
Salgado Araujo, an undocumented immigrant and father of three U.S. citizen sons who was in the process of legalizing his status, was en route to a construction site on July 7 with his brother and two coworkers when ICE agents in unmarked SUVs stopped their van in east Houston. Over three decades as a Houston resident, he maintained a clean criminal record.
An unnamed spokesperson for ICE claimed that Salgado Araujo “rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused to comply with multiple verbal commands, and used his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE officer, prompting the officer to fire in self-defense.”
However, the three passengers assert that Salgado Araujo did not attempt to run over anyone and that the agents were not in any danger. “At no moment were the agents in front of the vehicle,” stated Daniel Tirado Pantoja, a rear passenger in the van, in his handwritten statement in Spanish. “Lorenzo (Salgado Araujo) had come to a complete stop when the agents opened fire.”
Jose Trinidad Rojas Pliego, another backseat passenger, echoed this in his statement, asserting that Salgado Araujo had stopped the van before he was shot in the stomach. Rojas Pliego emphasized that “it’s impossible to say they were going to get run over. That’s a lie—no officer was behind or in front; they were on the sides.”
Later, Aaron Reitz, the new Assistant Attorney General for the Southern District of Texas, provided additional context regarding the incident. He noted that federal officers were investigating two Guatemalan men in the same area who were also driving a white van. Salgado Araujo and the other three men were all Mexican citizens.
Reitz claimed that once ICE agents encountered Salgado Araujo’s white van, the driver initially evaded capture, but agents later located and surrounded it. “Preliminary information suggests the driver shifted the van into reverse and then forward again while an officer was partially inside or next to it,” he alleged.
