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Rats infest New Orleans Police Headquarters, eat marijuana in evidence
Rats infest New Orleans Police Headquarters, eat marijuana in evidence
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Rats are consuming drugs that were seized and stored by Houston police and hundreds of cases could be vulnerable to the rodent infestation, officials said.It’s an issue that has prompted the district attorney to alert defense attorneys in more than 3,600 open drug-related cases, although only one active case has been impacted by the rodents. “Just one example, we’ve got 400,000 pounds of marijuana in storage that the rats are the only ones enjoying,” Houston Mayor John Whitmire said Friday at a news conference.Joshua Reiss, general counsel at the Harris County District Attorney, said the rodents also got into packaging containing mushrooms.”The Harris County District Attorney’s Office was notified last week that the HPD Narcotics Evidence Room at 1200 Travis had a problem or issue with rodents,” Reiss said.
According to CBS affiliate KHOU-TV, the Houston Police Department and other agencies have permission from the DA’s office to destroy any drug evidence from cleared cases before 2015.
From mushrooms to marijuana: How a rodent problem in HPD’s evidence room is causing legal ripples across Harris County. @JMilesKHOU https://t.co/30O3zsN3Rx— KHOU 11 News Houston (@KHOU) January 15, 2025
Reiss said it’s not just a Houston issue but a national one. Police officials said that the issue has existed since the 1990s. Last March, officials said rodents were consuming drugs in the evidence room of the decaying New Orleans Police Department headquarters. “The rats are eating our marijuana. They’re all high,” NOPD Chief Anne Kirkpatrick testified at a city Criminal Justice Committee meeting.
