A newly released video of a 2013 case shows the moment that a 16-year-old drug smuggler drinks liquid meth in front of authorities in an effort to fool them into thinking it was juice. Just hours later, the teenager died.
While the case is not new, the newly released video has sparked controversy over the conduct of the officers who allowed the 16-year-old Cruz Velasquez Acevedo to drink from a bottle that they suspected contained drugs. The teen’s relatives sued the U.S. federal government and received a $1 million settlement earlier this year, the San Diego Tribune reported.
The case took place in 2013 at the San Ysidro port of entry when Acevedo, a Mexican national with a crossing card, tried to cross the border carrying bottled filled with liquid methamphetamine.
The teen’s nervousness tipped authorities off. U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) officers sent him to a secondary inspection area. During questioning at a secondary inspection area by CBP officers about the content of the bottles, the teen said they contained juice. The video shows the moment where, in front of the agents, the teenager drank the drug-laced juice.
Court testimony from CBP officers varies as to if any of the law enforcement officials actually asked the teen to drink the juice, or if they simply stood and watched, the San Diego Tribune reported.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.
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