APD clarifies no arrests made for 'outbreak' of overdoses that affected 79 and killed nine

Editor's note: The story was updated to reflect the Austin Police Department's clarification that the five individuals arrested for possession or delivery of narcotics, were not linked to the overdoses or deaths that took place from April 29 to May 3. The agency previously said they had been arrested "in connection to multiple fentanyl overdoses."

The Austin Police Department announced Tuesday the arrest of five individuals for either possession or delivery of crack cocaine which also tested positive for fentanyl. 

The department also clarified that there have been no arrests in direct connection with the overdoses that occurred from April 29 to May 3, which city officials have called the deadliest overdose outbreak in nearly a decade, police Lt. Patrick Eastlick said. Austin police previously said the recent arrests of five people had "come from investigating the source of the illicit narcotics related to the recent overdoses."

The investigation into suppliers and dealers is still ongoing, Eastlick said, and international cartel involvement has not yet been ruled out, though police currently believe those responsible are a "loose net of individuals."

He said building charges for either murder or delivering controlled substances causing serious bodily injury or death "does take some time," and the department would build strong cases against any individuals directly involved with last week's overdoses and deaths. He said some overdose victims are assisting police in the investigation.

Eastlick said the department theorizes that crack cocaine bought and sold by individuals and dealers is mixed with other substances, including fentanyl, to increase the volume of drugs — and profits.

"Somewhere down the line of people selling (drugs) to other dealers and ... different buyers, fentanyl was mixed into it. These mixtures aren't done in labs, so there's no scientific approach to it. It looks like too much fentanyl got mixed in with the substances that caused the overdoses that we saw," he said.

Gary Lewis, 50; Denise Horton, 47; Kanady Rimijo, 32; Marcellus Barron, 30; and Ronnie Mims, 45, were arrested and charged with either possession or distribution of controlled substances, police said in a statement Monday. Eastlick said officers tested for fentanyl at the scene and that further lab testing was underway.

Lewis, Barron and Mims are all currently in custody at the Travis County Jail. Horton and Rimijo have bonded out since their arrests. An additional person, Johnny Lee Wright, 55, was arrested April 29 and labeled a person of interest by police. He was charged with suspicion of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, according to his arrest affidavit, and two unrelated earlier charges, county records show. Wright has not yet been connected to the overdoses.

Police officers located Mims at a home in North Austin on April 30, near East Anderson Lane and U.S. 183, according to an arrest affidavit. Police went to Mims’ residence, based on witness testimony that Mims and his brother allegedly supplied the narcotics linked to overdoses in the downtown area, the affidavit said. He was found in possession of crack cocaine laced with fentanyl. While at the residence, police administered two doses of Narcan to Mims’ relative, who was “sitting limply on the floor,” the affidavit said. It is currently unknown whether Mims' brother was charged.

Horton, Lewis, Rimijo and Barron were arrested May 2 at a North Austin parking lot near the intersection of North Lamar Boulevard and West Rundberg Lane, identified by Austin police as a “known open air drug market,” multiple affidavits said. 

Undercover members of a Police Department sting operation initially arrested Rimijo after an officer asked to buy $40 worth of crack cocaine from him. At the time of his arrest, police also found eight individually packaged baggies of marijuana in Rimijo’s jacket pocket, the affidavit said. The seized marijuana tested positive for fentanyl. 

The same officers observed Lewis and Horton inside a vehicle selling marijuana and suspected crack cocaine to another person, according to the affidavit. Both drugs tested positive for fentanyl.

How did last week's overdose outbreak occur?

From April 29 to May 3, Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services responded to 79 overdose calls in Travis County, Capt. Christa Stedman said Friday. Austin-Travis County EMS typically sees two to four opioid overdose calls per day, she said. 911 calls began to come in about 1 a.m. April 29, around Neches Street, between East Sixth and East Eighth streets, in downtown Austin, Stedman said at an initial news conference later that day. The calls then migrated across the city, to North, South and East Austin, and were not limited to one geographic location, EMS Assistant Chief Steve White said Tuesday.

The Travis County medical examiner's office confirmed it is investigating nine cases as suspected overdose deaths, according to county spokesperson Hector Nieto. Preliminary toxicology reports by the Travis County medical examiner's office show fentanyl was present in all nine deaths, he said. Cocaine was also present in eight cases and methamphetamine in three. The definitive causes of the deaths will be subject to toxicology testing by the medical examiner's office. The testing might take 30 to 60 days for final results.

Police conducted "proactive undercover operations" in various parts of Austin in an attempt to find and arrest narcotics dealers and obtain more information on the source of the fentanyl, police spokesperson Anna Sabana said Friday. She said the police investigation has not pointed to a "single organized group" distributing narcotics.