A state crime lab has cleared the drug allegation at the center of the deadly ICE shooting of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, marking what his family and their lawyers described as a major shift in the investigation. Local prosecutors confirmed that state lab tests on a substance found in his van came back negative for narcotics, directly undercutting an earlier claim that the material was an illegal drug.
The initial federal court filings had pointed to a white, crystal-like substance that investigators claimed was packaged like methamphetamine. But the negative lab result contradicted that characterization, a step his relatives said validated what they had maintained from the very beginning, that the substance was nothing more than a basic homemade hydration mix that the family had prepared.
Salgado Araujo's relatives said the crystal-like material was crystallized salt used to make an electrolyte drink, describing it as a homemade mix of electrolyte water or salt and lemon. His brother Victor, they said, was first stunned by the allegation and then immediately recognized it as the electrolyte mix their family makes, the kind of thing they relied on as construction workers laboring in the Texas heat.
The lab findings hung over an emergency congressional field hearing held in Houston, where Salgado Araujo's family delivered emotional testimony. His son told lawmakers he was completely in shock when he first heard the drug allegations against his father, echoing the disbelief that the rest of the family had described when the claims first surfaced in the case.
Harris County District Attorney Sean Teer also testified at the hearing, telling lawmakers that his office is pressing forward with its own investigation into the shooting. His appearance underscored that the local inquiry into how Salgado Araujo was killed is continuing in parallel with the broader federal review that has drawn national attention to the case.
DHS officials had previously claimed the agent fired because Salgado Araujo weaponized his vehicle, a claim the family strongly denies. With the drug allegations now cleared, the family's legal team said the focus must return to how deadly force was used, and questioned why a sealed FBI search warrant was unsealed the same day it was signed, arguing it was aimed at prejudicing public opinion and distracting from what mattered.
The family's attorney noted that it took about a week and a half to get the lab results back, and said the full, detailed findings are due to be formally released on Monday, including a breakdown of the ingredients in the electrolyte mix. Until then, the family said, the clearing of the narcotics claim already shifts attention back to the circumstances of the shooting itself and the conduct of the agent involved.