APD arrest five more for 'outbreak' of opioid overdoses that affected 79 and killed nine

The Austin Police Department arrested five additional people in connection with the "outbreak" of overdoses that coursed through the city last week, the law enforcement agency said in a news release. City officials previously said the successive overdoses was the deadliest overdose outbreak in nearly a decade.

Gary Lewis, 50, Denise Horton, 47, Kanady Rimijo, 32, Marcellus Barron, 30, Ronnie Mims, 45, were arrested and charged between April 30 and May 2, county records show. They were arrested for either possession or delivery of crack cocaine, which also tested positive for fentanyl, the release said.

Lewis, Barron, and Mims are all currently in custody of the Travis County Jail. Horton and Rimjo have bonded out since their arrests. Johnny Lee Wright, 55, was arrested Monday, and initially charged with suspicion of unlawful possession of a firearm by a felon, according to his affidavit, but now faces two additional charges of possession of a controlled substance under one gram and theft from person, county records show.

Sting operation led to four of five arrests

Police officers located Mims at a home in North Austin on April 30, near East Anderson Lane and U.S. 183, according to an 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 that was 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 on 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 an APD 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 narcotics tested positive for fentanyl.

How did the 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 responds to two to four opioid overdose calls per day, she said. 911 calls began to come in around 1 a.m. April 29, around Neches Street, between East Sixth and East Eighth streets, in downtown Austin, Stedman said at an initial press 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 to return 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, Anna Sabana, a police spokesperson said Friday. She said the police investigation has not pointed to a "single organized group" distributing narcotics.

More information is expected at a police news conference Tuesday afternoon, the release said.

This story is developing. Check back for updates.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Five people arrested for Austin opioid overdose outbreak