Footage has emerged of two United States border officers appearing to encourage a teenage drug smuggler to drink lethal liquid meth, which resulted in his almost immediate death.
The footage, taken from surveillance cameras at the US/Mexico border in California back in 2013, shows Cruz Velazquez, a 16-year-old boy, attempt to cross the border with two bottles of liquid methylamphetamine.
The video shows the two officers who stop him appear to encourage him to drink the toxic liquid. He reportedly told them it was just juice; they clearly did not believe him.
He took four sips of the fluid in total, and died less than two hours later. It took more than half an hour for the officers to call for paramedics.
The Velazquez family was eventually awarded US$1.1 million as part of an unlawful death lawsuit settlement, but the two officers who encouraged a teenage boy to drink toxic fluid have not been punished. They both remain in the workforce of US Customs and Border Protection. A former head of the organisation says they clearly violated protocols:
“If they truly suspected there was a controlled substance in the bottle they should’ve conducted a field test.”
Watch the footage, obtained by ABC News America, below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bn5I_luJfsY
