AUSTIN — The Texas Longhorns have lost a handful of names to the transfer portal this offseason, as natural roster competition has forced players to look for other opportunities.

Defensive back Austin Jordan was one of them, but he isn’t going to far to find his new destination.

CNN
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Five people have been charged with drug offenses as part of an investigation into a surge in opioid overdoses in Austin, Texas, police said. All of the suspects “were arrested for either possession or delivery of crack cocaine which also tested positive for fentanyl,” the Austin Police Department said in a statement.

Gary Lewis, 50, and Denise Horton, 47, were charged with possession of fentanyl, a second-degree felony.

Ronnie Mims, 45, was charged with possession of a controlled substance, a third-degree felony. Kanady Rimijo, 32, faces charges for delivery of a controlled substance, a first degree felony, given the quantity alleged. Marcellus Barron, 30, faces the same charge but in the second degree for a smaller alleged quantity.

Jail records show that Horton and Rimijo were released on $20,000 bond. The other three suspects were still jailed Tuesday morning.

An arrest warrant affidavit for Rimijo obtained by CNN affiliate KEYE said the arrest was part of an undercover operation “in an effort to purchase narcotics from distributors for criminal prosecution in response to the surge of opioid related overdoses in Austin.”

According to the warrant, an undercover police officer was able to purchase a substance believed to be crack cocaine and during a subsequent search in connection with Rimijo’s arrest, found bags of suspected marijuana. Both later tested positive for fentanyl.

The warrant says police received over 70 opioid overdose calls in a 72-hour period, with at least seven deaths suspected of being connected to overdoses. Those deaths remain under investigation.

The five suspects have not been charged in connection with the recent overdoses or deaths.

The suspects have not yet entered pleas and are due in court later this month. CNN reached out to their court-appointed attorneys Tuesday for comment.

Nationwide, the drug overdose crisis is killing tens of thousands of Americans each year. About 112,024 people died from a drug overdose in the 12-month period ending in May 2023, according to estimates from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Center for Health Statistics.

That’s an increase of more than 2,700 drug overdose deaths compared to the previous year. About 109,261 people died from drug overdoses in the 12-month period ending in May 2022.

The arrests come as federal officials recognize National Fentanyl Awareness Day on May 7.

In recent years, many overdose deaths have been caused by opioids – drugs formulated to replicate the pain-reducing properties of opium.

Some opioids are legal, such as the prescription painkillers morphine, oxycodone and hydrocodone – though they can be dangerous when abused. Other opioids are illegal, such as heroin and illicitly made fentanyl.

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas is leading the nation with the number of adults and children who lost Medicaid health coverage during the state’s unwinding process. Over two million people were unenrolled in the last year because of the end of federal coverage, that Texas chose to not supplement. 

As a result, hospital bills could rise to cover the uninsured. 

“If we have a high percentage that can’t pay in hospital ultimately it’s going to affect everyone through their health insurance premiums,” said Stephen Love, president and CEO of the Dallas-Fort Worth Hospital Council. 

Texans who lost Medicaid were determined ineligible or removed for procedural reasons. That happens when the state can’t locate someone to verify reenrollment or doesn’t have enough information to determine if someone is eligible. 

However, federal law requires states to attempt to use data already available to determine eligibility. 

“States usually have this set up where there are certain groups of folks, broad kind of buckets, where they think they’re going to have enough information based on those systems to know whether they can do this and groups where they don’t,” said Laura Dague, a Public Service and Administration professor at Texas A&M University. 

Texas Health and Human Services says Medicaid enrollment numbers are in line with the department’s projections, and what they expected the dis-enrollment would be at this time. But some experts say more people should’ve been re-enrolled. 

“Texas decided to go through this Medicaid unwinding process pretty quickly. We could’ve taken longer. Other states have chosen to extend the amount of time to make sure that everybody that was still eligible was able to stay on,” said Brittney Taylor-Ross, a senior policy analyst at Every Texan. 

While the state works to review Medicaid eligibility, other social services have been delayed. 

“Mid-April, we were looking at about 67,000 SNAP applications that were sitting in the backlog,” said Taylor-Ross. 

The effect of the people losing coverage could trickle into other aspects of the state. 

“If you’ve got people that are missing working, calling in sick, etcetera it’s going to raise other type of workforce cost for employers,” said Love.

Texas HHS expects Medicaid enrollment numbers to continue to fluctuate as they complete the redetermination process. They’ve released their move up-to-date figures of their Medicaid unwinding effort on their End of Continuous Medicaid Coverage dashboard.