Channel 5 News was given an inside look at where the puzzle pieces of crimes in the Rio Grande Valley are put together.

The Texas Department of Public Safety provided a tour of their Weslaco crime labs, where evidence from crime scenes and seizures are sent to be tested. 

The results decide whether cases move forward in the court system.  

“Our role ultimately is to provide facts to the case,” Jose Zuniga, the manager of the DPS Weslaco crime lab, said.

The lab is currently dealing with a backlog of cases, Zuniga said.

“The number of cases that we're completing and releasing are being replaced with new cases that are occurring, so it's a constant rotation of cases,” Zuniga said.

Hidalgo County District Attorney Toribio “Terry” Palacios says the backlog can slow down his case work. Sometimes the county uses a private lab, but that can get costly. 

“It can cost anywhere from a couple of thousand dollars to about $10,000, and that's expensive for taxpayers, and that's what we wanna avoid,” Palacios said.

Watch the video above for the full story.