The New Mexico declares the state of emergency while the “push of criminal activity” sweeps the state

Governor’s emergency statement Michelle Lujan Grisham is available $ 750,000 as local governments and tribal officials in Rio Arriba County to reinforcements against violent crimes as well as other crimes and difficulties associated with illegal drugs.

The vast county extends from the city of Española, 25 miles (40 kilometers) north of Santa Fe, to the state line of Colorado and has long been afflicted by a consumption of opioids and high drugs mortality rates, with homeless camps emerging in recent years in more populated areas.

“The sharp increase in criminal activity has contributed to an increase in homelessness, family instability and fatal overdoses of drugs, which has exerted extraordinary pressure on local governments and police services that have requested immediate state aid,” said Lujan Grisham, a democrat, in a press release.

In April, Lujan Grisham declared the state of emergency in the largest city in New Mexico, albuquerque, saying that a significant increase in crime justified the help of the National Guard of New Mexico. Earlier, in 2023, she suspended the right to transport firearms to public parks and playgrounds in Albuquerque in response to a series of shots in the state that made dead children.

There was no immediate appeal to deployments of troops in the county of Rio Arba, although the new declaration of emergency authorizes the authorities to call the National Guard. Emergency funds will help local law organizations to spend on overtime, coordinated equipment and police responses, said Lujan Grisham spokesperson Jodi McGinnis Porter.

The tribal governor of Santa Clara Pueblo at the edge of Española urged the State to approach an increasing crisis of public security resulting from the use and abuse of fentanyl and alcohol in the community as a whole.

“The Pueblo spent thousands of dollars trying to fight this crisis … and protect the children of Pueblo who are directly and negatively affected by the dependence of a parent or a tutor,” said Governor of Santa Clara James Naranjo in a letter in July to Lujan Grisham. “But we are not an isolated community and the causes and effects of fentanyl / alcohol abuse, increased crime and the increase in homelessness extend to the community in the broad sense.”

Recent deaths in the region linked by medical investigators to consumption of fentanyl and alcohol include the Sheriff of the County of Rio Arba, Billy Merrifield.

In 2020, President Donald Trump sent federal agents, including internal security agents, to Albuquerque as part of an effort to contain violent crimes.

Separately, Wednesday, the Albuquerque police service announced accusations of murder against three teenagers – including two juveniles – during the death by the July 2 of a homeless in Albuquerque who was pursued from a bus stop at the hours before dawn. A 15-year-old boy is accused of being the shooter in the murder of Frank Howard, 45, said the spokesman for the police department, Gilbert Gallegos.