A bunch of drug-addicted rats have infiltrated a narcotics evidence room at the Houston Police Department's headquarters, potentially comprising 3,600 open drug-related cases, including capital murder cases.
There are 400,000 pounds of marijuana in storage, Houston's mayor John Whitmire divulged at a press conference on Friday, and rats have been eating it since October. The rodents also infiltrated a package of psylocibin.
To mitigate the issue, the District Attorney's office will allow the police department and other agencies to destroy drugs related to cases that were cleared before 2015.
"I really don't think that this is gonna compromise any convictions but it is important for the defendants to know about," Joshua Reiss, the DA office's general counsel, told ABC13.
Apparently, Houston isn't the only city that has a problem. Peter Stout, president and CEO of Houston Forensic Science Center, asserted this is a nationwide issue.
"This is a problem for property rooms everywhere in the country—rodents, bugs, fungus, all kinds of things love drugs," he stated. "This is difficult getting those rodents out of there. Think about it. They're drug-addicted rats. They're tough to deal with."
Originally published by Latin Times
