The Governor of New Mexico declared an emergency on Wednesday in response to violent crime and drug trafficking across a cut in northern New Mexico, including two Native American Pueblo communities.
The emergency clothing of government manager Michelle Lujan Grisham provides $ 750,000 as local authorities and tribal men in Rio Arriba County call for reinforcements against violent crime as well as other crime and difficulties associated with illegal drugs.
The huge county extends from the city of Española, 40 miles (40 kilometers) north of Santa Fe, to Colorado State Line and has long been plagued by opioid use and high drug overdoor overdoor rates where homeless camp occurs in recent years in more populated areas.
“The wave in criminal activity has contributed to increased homelessness, family instability and fatal overdose of drugs that put extraordinary burden on local authorities and police departments requesting immediate state assistance,” Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, said in a statement.
In April, Lujan Grisham declared an emergency in New Mexico’s largest city, Albuquerque, and said a significant increase in crime justified help from the New Mexico National Guard. Earlier, by 2023, she suspended the right to wear guns on public parks and playgrounds in Albuquerque in response to a number of shootings around the state that left children died ..
There were no immediate calls for troop developments in Rio Ariba County, although the new declaration of emergency allows authorities to summon the National Guard. Emergency funds will help local law enforcement authorities spend on overtime, equipment and coordinated police responses, spokesman for Lujan Grisham Jodi McGinnis Porter said.
The tribal governor of Santa Clara Pueblo on the edge of Española called on the state to tackle a growing crisis in public security arising from the use and abuse of fentanyl and alcohol in society as a whole.
“Pueblo has spent thousands of dollars trying to tackle this crisis … and to protect Pueblo children who are directly and negatively affected by a parent’s or guardian addiction,” said Santa Clara government James Naranjo in a letter in July to Lujan Grisham. “But we are not an isolated society, and the causes and effects of fentanyl/alcohol abuse, increased crime and increased homelessness extend to the wider community.”
The latest deaths in the region connected by medical investigators to fentanyl and alcohol use include Rio Ariba County Sheriff Billy Merrifield.
By 2020, President Donald Trump sent federal agents, including security officers for the home country, to Albuquerque as part of an effort to contain violent crime.
Separately on Wednesday, Albuquerque Police Department announced murder complaints against three teenagers – including two young people – in July 2 shooting dead by a homeless man in Albuquerque who was chased from a bus stop in the previous hours. A 15-year-old boy is accused of being the shooter in the killing of 45-year-old Frank Howard, spokesman for the Gilbert Galbert police department said.