The school district serving the growing population of Colony Ridge, a sprawling development north of Houston that has become a magnet for illegal aliens, is facing a sudden surge in drug overdoses.
A whopping 15 drug-related incidents have happened at Cleveland Independent School District (CISD) since the start of the school year on August 8th, with the district suspecting that fentanyl-laced Percocet pills are to blame.
“In recent weeks, there have been 4 reported cases of drug overdose in our district, specifically related to Percocet pills that may have been laced with fentanyl,” a public service announcement from CISD reads. “We urge all residents, especially those who use or come in contact with prescription medications, to exercise extreme caution.”
But while there have been four reported overdose cases where the student required Narcan this year, there were also eight incidents that required an ambulance to be called to CISD. The figures mark a drastic surge in overdoses, with only one overdose being recorded for all of last year.
The district now says it is working closely with police and held town halls this month where the police chief briefed the community on the dangers of fentanyl and passed out Narcan, a drug used to counteract overdoses.
CISD sits in Liberty County, a rapidly growing area that can attribute much of its surge in population to Colony Ridge, a development that could eventually house 200,000 people and uses a financing method that allows illegal immigrants to buy land in the United States.
The district has exploded alongside the growth of the development, with CISD enrolling nearly 1,100 students in just two weeks over the summer and almost doubling in enrollment since 2018. Many of the new students do not speak English, compelling the district to offer $7,000 annual stipends to bilingual teachers.
Law enforcement officials have warned that drug cartels are likely to be active in Colony Ridge and, even worse, that they do not have sufficient resources to patrol the development.
Liberty County Sheriff Rader warned on the Michael Berry Show that his office does not have the resources to handle the criminal presence in the area, noting, “We’ve heard rumors that the cartel is buying up houses.”
Rader can’t be sure what the proportion of patrol officers to residents is because no one is certain exactly how many people live at Colony Ridge, just that it is growing rapidly. He posited that, at best, there may be one officer for every 16,700 residents, but the ratio could be as dismal as one officer for every 25,000 residents.
Robert Freyer, the First Assistant District Attorney of neighboring San Jacinto County, told The Daily Wire that law enforcement believes “cartels are importing liquid meth into those houses” and “turning it into crystal there.”
The county’s sheriff, Greg Capers, also warned that the Los Zetas, Gulf, Jalisco New Generation, and the Sinaloa cartels are active in the region, the latter two of which the Drug Enforcement Agency has noted as “likely the primary trafficking groups responsible for smuggling fentanyl into the United States from Mexico.”
Governor Greg Abbott has responded to the reports of crime and cartel activity in Colony Ridge by placing legislation addressing the development on the schedule for the special legislative session, as well as by sending Texas Department of Public Safety troopers into the area.