Federal Testing Found the Crystal-Like Substance Recovered From Salgado Araujo’s Van Was Not Methamphetamine, Undercutting an Allegation Raised After He Was Fatally Shot by an ICE Officer
A substance federal authorities suspected could be methamphetamine after an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer fatally shot Houston construction worker Lorenzo Salgado Araujo has tested negative for the drug.
U.S. Attorney Aaron Reitz confirmed that laboratory testing found no methamphetamine in the “white crystal-like substance” recovered from Salgado Araujo’s work van, according to The Texas Tribune. Reitz did not publicly identify what the substance was.
Attorneys representing Salgado Araujo’s family have maintained that the substance was a homemade electrolyte mixture his wife prepared for him and members of his construction crew to help them stay hydrated while working in the Texas summer heat.
The confirmation adds another point of dispute to the federal government’s account surrounding the July 7 shooting, which has already prompted protests, multiple investigations and growing demands for transparency.
Questions Continue to Surround Fatal ICE Shooting
Salgado Araujo, 52, was driving workers, including his brother, to a construction site when ICE officers in unmarked vehicles began pursuing his white van through Houston.
An ICE officer later shot Salgado Araujo through the van’s window. He was transported to a hospital, where he died.
The Department of Homeland Security said after the shooting that Salgado Araujo had “weaponized his vehicle in an attempt to run over an ICE law enforcement officer” and said the officer fired in self-defense.
Two men who were inside the van, however, have disputed that account in statements filed in federal court. They said the immigration officers remained beside the van and were never positioned directly in front of or behind it where they could have been run over.
Federal officials have also since disclosed that ICE officers had been looking for two Guatemalan men who could be subject to deportation and were traveling in a van similar to Salgado Araujo’s vehicle.
Salgado Araujo was a Mexican national who had lived in the United States without legal status for about 35 years. His family has said he owned a homebuilding business, supported workers and had no criminal record.
In the weeks after his death, his family called for an independent investigation into the shooting, a demand later echoed by former Vice President Kamala Harris, who publicly condemned the shooting and called for further investigation.
Search Warrant Draws Renewed Criticism
Following the shooting, the FBI obtained a search warrant for Salgado Araujo’s van after officers reported seeing small plastic bags containing a crystal-like material they believed could be methamphetamine.
With tests now showing the substance was not meth, the family’s attorneys and civil rights advocates are renewing criticism of the government’s decision to publicly raise the drug allegation.
David Donatti, senior staff attorney with the ACLU of Texas, which represents the Salgado family, said the search contributed to what he described as a misleading account of Salgado Araujo.
“Lorenzo Salgado Araujo should still be alive today, and nothing about the government’s so-called ‘search’ could have changed that fact,” Donatti said.
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He said the testing supported what the family had maintained from the beginning: that Salgado Araujo was a construction worker whose wife packed electrolyte mixes for him and his crew.
The ACLU of Texas has said laboratory testing showed the substance was not an illicit drug.
“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,” Donatti said. “The Salgados deserve real answers about what happened to their father.”
Salgado Araujo’s death is among at least 10 deaths connected to federal immigration enforcement operations since President Donald Trump began his administration’s expanded deportation campaign, according to the Associated Press.
The Harris County District Attorney’s Office is separately conducting an investigation into the shooting, while federal investigations remain ongoing.
