Federal authorities found three bags of what they believe to be meth inside the van driven by the Mexican man who was shot and killed by Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Houston last week.
An FBI search warrant said investigators found bags containing a “white crystal-like substance” that “is consistent with methamphetamine” inside the vehicle driven by Lorenzo Salgado Araujo.
ICE officers were “conducting an immigration enforcement operation” last Tuesday when they tried to stop a vehicle with four people inside, including one they believed was their target, according to the search warrant. The driver, who was later identified as Araujo, “refused to stop and instead drove over a median in an attempt to flee.”
The officers did not chase the vehicle and later “relocated” it in a different area before “attempting to stop” it, the warrant stated.
Araujo then “rammed an ICE law enforcement vehicle, refused to follow multiple verbal commands, and weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer resulting in our officer firing his weapon in self-defense,” ICE said, adding that the driver was in the United States illegally.
The Department of Homeland Security later said that none of the vehicle’s occupants was their intended target. ICE took the three passengers into custody, who later said they were heading to work at a construction site when the shooting occurred, according to The Washington Post.
Araujo’s death was followed by another ICE-involved shooting in Biddeford, Maine, where an officer fatally shot Joan Sebastian Guerrero, a 25-year-old from Colombia, on Monday.
ICE said the Colombian migrant had “attempted to flee” and that the officer who fired the fatal shot was “fearing for public safety.”
ICE responded to the two shootings by pausing the agency’s use of traffic stops, The Daily Wire first reported Tuesday. In a Truth Social post Wednesday, President Donald Trump signaled that the suspension would be reversed.
“The Open Border Policy of Sleepy Joe Biden allowed 25,000,000 people to pour into our Country, unchecked and unvetted,” the president said. “Many were Criminals, and we have to get them out. In order to do this, we must be strong, tough, and smart, and we CANNOT give up one of I.C.E.’s most important and effective Crime Fighting tools, THE TRAFFIC STOP! Once we do, we are playing right into the criminal’s hands.”
“The Radical Left Dumocrats would like to see this done, but it won’t happen on my watch. I.C.E., be judicious, fair and smart, and go back and do your very important job,” he said. “Keep those Crime Stat Records coming! Remember, you are loved and respected in America.”
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