In a warrant to search the van Lorenzo Salgado Araujo was driving when he was fatally shot last week by an ICE agent in Houston, the Federal Bureau of Investigation said it has cause to believe there were illegal drugs in the vehicle.
The warrant cites probable cause for “distribution, manufacturing, or possession with intent to distribute a controlled substance and simple possession of a controlled substance.”
In the warrant affidavit authored by FBI Special Agent David McNielly on Tuesday and submitted to a federal magistrate judge, the agent described arriving on scene after the shooting and allegedly observing small plastic bags “with a white crystal-like substance” in the white cargo van. McNielly said he made the observations from outside of the van.
“The packaging and appearance of the controlled substance in the target vehicle is consistent with methamphetamine,” the warrant states. However, it does not explicitly say who the bags are believed to belong to. Included within the warrant are two images of the bags that appear to be on the vehicle’s dashboard.
While not unheard of, it is unusual for an FBI search warrant to be publicly available during an active and high-profile investigation of this nature.
