HOUSTON DRUG CRAFT: 4 men in jail after DPS announces raid on a fentanyl lab at Speedy Slingshot Rentals in the Carverdale area

Houston, Texas (KTRK) – Four men are in jail on Tuesday night for drug offenses after they were caught at a modest car rental company in northwest Houston.

It’s called Speedy Slingshot Rentals.

Founded last year, the company advertises itself as Houston’s first foray into the car rental business.

“It’s been disguised as a business, but when it’s closed seven days a week,” neighbor Chris Salgado said. “So, what is there to say about that?”

SEE ORIGINAL REPORT: Heavy Police Activity Could Be Considered Suspected Fentanyl Lab Raid Underway in NW Houston

Eyewitness News first reported that investigators seized 17 pounds of fentanyl, 2.2 pounds of fake Xanax pills with suspected fentanyl, a pound of fake Adderall pills, 4 1/2 pounds of cocaine, 44 pounds of marijuana, three handguns, and a. A gun and a stolen car.

“The problem with that is that these pills can be manufactured so well that the average user would have no idea what they got at a regular pharmacy and what was actually made in a place like this,” Lieutenant Craig Cummings, of DPS’s SE Region, said.

“Those pills can, once they get out of a facility like this, find themselves in the hands of a friend who thinks they have legitimate pills, and then turn them over to someone else,” Cummings said.

Fentanyl is often added to other medications because it is cheap and very effective.

But this high potency means that it is deadly, even in trace amounts. And most of the people who died from it didn’t even know they took it.

According to the Texas Department of Health Services, 97% of accidental opioid deaths in the state last year were related to fentanyl.

This is up from 69% in 2018.

“They make it in a blender or cement mixer, so there are no real doses of fentanyl that go into a given pill,” Cummings said. “If you were to drop your salt shaker on the table, the amount of salt that comes out would probably be a lethal dose of fentanyl if you were to compare the two.”

More charges are likely to be filed as investigators delve into what they believe is the complex and far-reaching drug-making process.

Neighbors say undercover officers have been hiding there for days.

“It’s crazy. These are things you see on the news. They could be right next to you, right next to you, and you’d never know it,” Salgado said.

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