Video shows teen drinking liquid meth in front of CBP officers before he died

A recently released video shows a Tijuana teenager drinking a lethal dose of liquid methamphetamine while being questioned by U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers.

Sixteen-year-old Cruz Marcelino Velázquez Acevedo died screaming and convulsing after he consumed the stimulant while in federal custody at the San Ysidro Port of Entry in November 2013. His family and the government agreed to a $1 million settlement in March.

According to the legal complaint, Velázquez told the officers that the amber-colored substance in the two bottles he brought across the border was apple juice he had purchased in Mexico.

The lawsuit alleged that “the two agents told a young man to drink the liquid to prove to them that it was fruit juice and not a drug,” Eugene Iredale, attorney for the teenager’s family, said in March. “He did that, and as a result, he died.”

The video, which first aired on ABC News, shows one officer move the bottle closer to Velázquez, who opens its cap and takes a sip. Seconds later the other officer gestured with his hand toward Velázquez and the teen took a second sip. He died two hours later in the emergency room at Sharp Chula Vista Medical Center.

Iredale said Velázquez was a high school student in Tijuana with no criminal record, and that it was believed that he was paid $100 to $200 to cross the border with the two bottles of drugs.

When Velázquez entered the country he told an officer he was headed to the United States to visit an uncle, and was sent to secondary screening by an officer, where he eventually drank the liquid.

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