Rats feast on over 181,000kg of marijuana in Houston police evidence room
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The rats, according to media outlet CBS News, have broken into the room on multiple occasions.
PHOTO: ST FILE
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Houston, we have a problem.
Rodents have reportedly found their way to 181,440kg of seized marijuana stored in the Houston Police Department’s evidence lockers, resulting in the destruction of all evidence stored there dating back to 2015.
The rats, according to media outlet CBS News, have broken into the room on multiple occasions.
Mr Rafael Lemaitre, a spokesperson for the Houston District Attorney’s (DA) office, said on Jan 15 rats had infested the warehouse and were eating the drugs, even though only one ongoing case was “deemed fully compromised by the rodents”.
Mr Peter Stout, the chief executive officer of the Houston Forensic Science Centre, said during a media briefing on Jan 17 that the infestations were caused by huge amounts of evidence materials, which is common in such rooms in the United States.
“This is a problem for property rooms everywhere in the country – rodents, bugs, fungus, all kinds of things love drugs This is difficult getting those rodents out of there. I mean, think about it. They’re drug-addicted rats. They’re tough to deal with,” Mr Stout said.
Houston Police chief J. Noe Diaz said that most of the narcotics in the warehouse concern cases that were resolved a long time ago.
The Washington Post reported on Jan 21 Houston Mayor John Whitmire as saying that he is looking at organising some 1.2 million pieces of evidence that are held by the city, and discarding them where feasible.
“So much evidence is kept and stored that is no longer needed, that has no impact on the resolution of that charge, that conviction or even that innocence,” Mr Whitmire said.
However, the burning of old drugs could cost hundreds of thousands of dollars due to environmental guidelines, Mr Diaz said. The DA’s office said it had completed burning more than 6,800kg of narcotics on Jan 10, according to the National Criminal Justice Association.
“It costs a lot of money to destroy illicit narcotics, and so the DA’s office is going to utilise funds that we control to help the city with this immediate problem,” Harris County District Attorney Sean Teare said.
