Laredo Police Department Chief Miguel Rodriguez speaks at the mayor's local emergency address on Jan. 10, 2024 at City Hall.
David Gomez Jr./Laredo Morning Times

Just eight days into the new year, Laredo Mayor Dr. Victor Trevino held a local emergency address on Wednesday morning at city hall. 

The mayor addressed the city’s overdose deaths -- four so far through eight days spanning two separate incidents -- with the means to tackle the issue with local government, police and fire department. 

Laredo Police Department Chief Miguel Rodriguez issued a warning to drug dealers and suppliers after coming off a second straight record year for overdose deaths.

“We’re coming for you,” Rodriguez said. “We’re coming for you, and we’re going to prosecute you. We’re going to send a message that is loud and clear by the police department and every agency.” 

Rodriguez spoke regarding prevention and how it is the prominent way to tackle the issue head on. Trevino agreed and believed talking of prevention to teenagers is fine but must be done also with children, as young as 5, so they can learn as well. 

“We need to target education, and specifically, we need to start with children,” Trevino said. “There might be some resistance from parents that don’t want their children exposed about drug prevention, and there are two choices: have us expose them and educate them the right way, or have their peers introduce them to drugs. Those are the choices, and to me, they are very clear-cut. Experts suggest we start talking to children about drugs as early as 5 years of age, because the reality is children, as young as 9 years old, start viewing alcohol in a more positive way; as something cool to do.” 

The mayor also wants more focus on prevention and detox centers, narcan cabinets, drug response teams and intervention at an early age. 

“These are things we have to be really cognizant on, because we have the increase of drug related deaths the first eight to nine days of the year,” Trevino said. “This will surpass the 65 drug-related deaths we had last year. We have to get moving on this problem, and I invite everybody, or anybody that may have any suggestions, that can contribute to this taskforce to help us.” 

Laredo Fire Department Chief Guillermo Heard spoke about the department’s taskforce, the opioid response team, to combat challenges in the city’s hotspots and provide education to schools around the city. He said that his team has almost tripled in size since 2020. 

Heard also spoke of the dangers his EMTs face when they are called for an overdose call and how difficult it can be when evaluating a victim as fentanyl cases have entered the drug scene since then. 

“We have seen a slow rise in narcan administration in our emergency response,” Heard said. “Every year, they have been rising nearly 50%. Last year, we administered close to almost 800 narcans in our emergency scenes. This is where we’ve been noticing having more fentanyl in our community.” 

The fire chief continued to say that one dose of narcan is no longer enough for an overdose related case as some drugs, exclusively fentanyl, are more potent and would need two to three uses of narcan in order to reverse the effects. 

Heard hopes to open up all fire stations to the public by the end of the year in order to learn life saving skills such as administering narcan and CPR, and said the department is committed to more communication with the police department and save further lives. 

Also in attendance was Executive Director Dr. Viviana Martinez of the Roots Recovery Center and answered that she will try to do her part in the community by hoping to open the doors to the detox facility by the end of the month as soon as it passes one more state inspection on Thursday, Jan. 11. 

Trevino added how having a background in medicine, and treating former overdose patients, makes him a knowledgeable mayor during such a crisis. 

“I know very well what this can lead to,” Trevino said. “Not only the deaths, but the devastation for the families and the long term effects of people who don’t die from drug abuse and the consequences it causes in their life.”