Dozens of suspects arrested overnight in Harris Co. street racing bust

Friday, March 19, 2021

Anyone caught street racing will have car seized, DA warns

With "TX2K21" happening this weekend, authorities want to keep the racing on the Houston Raceway Park track, not the streets.

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Dozens of arrests were made overnight as local law enforcement works to end illegal street racing across the Houston area.

According to Harris County Sheriff's Office Assistant Chief Mike Lee, a initiative led by the Traffic Crimes Unit resulted in 43 arrests, one pursuit, several cars towed and guns taken off the streets.

The initiative came ahead of the annual TX2K Roll and Drag Race Nationals event this weekend at Houston Raceway Park in Baytown.

"TX2K21" is a legal event on a closed course and isn't related to the racing incidents from overnight.

HCSO held a news conference Tuesday about an effort to end the unsanctioned public road takeovers, which authorities acknowledge as potentially deadly.

Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, District Attorney Kim Ogg and raceway owner Seth Angel led the message.

However, it was Ogg's warning about what could happen to racers' vehicles that may be the most significant message from the event. Aside from street racing, she said her office will be prosecuting "fly-bys" and street takeovers.

"Not only can [these activities] land you in jail or prison, but you may have to live with the consequences of deadly actions that are foreseeable from this kind of activity," Ogg said. "We're seizing cars, and these cars are valuable... It's not so great to have to rebuy your car back once it's been lawfully seized and forfeited as an instrument of a crime."

According to Ogg, her office, under a program targeting illegal street racing, has already seized 86 cars with the intention to forfeit.

The warning also came a couple of weeks after a fly-by resulted in the deaths of spectators along U.S. 290.