HOUSTON – U.S. Rep. Sylvia Garcia says the substance found inside of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo’s work van after the fatal shooting involving an U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agent has been confirmed not to be a narcotic.
Garcia’s statement came late Friday as the Congressional Hispanic Caucus held an oversight hearing in Houston focused on the recent deadly incidents involving ICE.
Recommended Videos
“We can now confirm that the substance found in Lorenzo Salgado’s van was not a narcotic or any other illicit substance. As his family has said all along, this was an electrolyte powder to stay hydrated working outside in the hot Texas summer. The attempt to cast a shadow over Lorenzo Salgado’s name has failed,” Garcia wrote on X.
KPRC 2 News has reached out to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for additional information, but a spokesperson said Friday they had nothing to share at this time.
Background of the allegations
Salgado Araujo’s family had pushed back against allegations stemming from an FBI search warrant which stated investigators found several bags containing what appeared to be a “white crystal-like substance” that an agent believed was consistent with methamphetamine.
“Lorenzo and narcotics were never in the same sentence. It never would happen,” immigration attorney Ruby Powers told KPRC 2 News at the time. She represents Lorenzo’s brother, Victor Salgado Araujo.
In a statement, Powers said the family believed the substance was granulated salt mixed with lemon and water as a homemade electrolyte drink commonly used by outdoor workers.
“After consulting with my client and his family, our understanding is that this was granulated salt, which is paired with lemon and water as a homemade electrolyte mix used by outdoor workers in extreme Texas heat, not methamphetamine or any other illicit substance,” Powers said.
Powers emphasized that the FBI affidavit was part of a request for a search warrant and did not establish that a crime had occurred.
“A search warrant does not equate to guilt. An unidentified substance is not a confirmed narcotic,” she said.
In an interview with KPRC 2 News, Powers said Victor Salgado Araujo was shocked and angry at the government’s claims.
“He didn’t even know what meth was,” Powers said. “He’s already detained. He already lost his brother. And now you’re trying to insinuate that he’s involved with drugs, trying to discredit who he is.”
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare also publicly questioned the significance of the FBI affidavit during an interview with CNN.
Teare said investigators from his office were present while the FBI executed the search warrant and that, based on what his office had seen, “we don’t believe that they are drugs.”
Statement from Ruby Powers
Powers released a statement Friday following Garcia’s social media post:
“From the beginning, the Salgado Araujo family told us the substance found in Lorenzo’s van was not an illicit drug. We expect the full lab results on Monday, which will confirm exactly what the substance is. We learned this from the family, who were told that DPS has the result. The preliminary report is already clear: the substance was not a controlled substance. An unproven claim was allowed to circulate before it was tested, and the way it was made public did real damage, diverting attention from what actually matters in this case. Lorenzo was shot, and no lab report answers for that. His brother Victor is a witness to that killing, and he remains in ICE custody. Justice for Lorenzo is release for Victor. We continue to call for his release so he can participate fully in the investigation, and for an independent investigation into how Lorenzo died. We want the truth to reach as many people as the accusation did, because Lorenzo deserves that much.”
Statement from ACLU of Texas
“Lorenzo Salgado Araujo should still be alive today, and nothing about the government’s so-called ‘search’ could have changed that fact. That search has now proven what the Salgado family has said all along: Lorenzo was a hardworking man who made homes for Houston families, and his wife packed him homemade electrolyte mixes to keep him and his crew hydrated under the Texas sun.
“By taking the unusual steps of securing and then unsealing their search warrant, the government has demonstrated that it is more interested in creating a false narrative than in seeking the truth. The Salgados deserve real answers about what happened to their father, and we reiterate our call for an independent and complete investigation.”