Border agents urged
16-year-old boy to drink liquid meth, resulting in his death
By Genevieve Leigh
1 August 2017
1 August 2017
Newly released surveillance video shows two US
Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agents encouraging a Mexican teenager to
drink liquid methamphetamine at the US-Mexico border crossing in San Diego,
California. After taking a total of four sips of the liquid at the behest of
giggling border agents, the sophomore high school student died of a massive
overdose. The video was only recently obtained by the media, despite the fact
that the incident took place more than three years ago, on November 18, 2013.
Sixteen-year-old Cruz Marcelino Velázquez
Acevedo was crossing the US-Mexico border at the San Ysidro port of entry when
he was stopped and questioned by border agents. The agents found two bottled
containers of an amber colored liquid which they suspected to be some form of
liquid drug. The substance was later determined to be highly concentrated
methamphetamine dissolved in liquid, with the contents of each bottle being 100
times stronger than a typical dose of methamphetamine.
The newly released video does not contain sound,
but the interaction caught on camera between the two agents, Valerie Baird and
Adrian Perallon, and Cruz, combined with court records, paints a very clear
picture of the events.
In the opening scenes of the video, Baird pulls
out two bottles from the boy’s bag. The officers later report that one was
labeled as black tea and the other as lemonade. Veláquez, sweating and agitated
from nerves, insisted to the officers that they contained “just apple juice.”
After exchanging words with her fellow agent,
Baird places the larger bottle in front of the boy. She says something to Cruz
during which she makes the universal gesture indicating he should drink the
liquid, presumably to prove that it is not drugs. The boy obliges and takes his
first sip at 7:04 pm. The other agent, Perallon, then motions for him to take
another sip. Cruz then takes his second sip of the powerful drug. The footage
shows the officers repeatedly exchanging smiles and laughing as the events
unfold.
This routine takes place twice more but this
time with the other officer, Adrian Perallon, placing the bottle in front of
Cruz and gesturing for him to drink. Cruz took a total of four swallows of the
liquid meth. A few moments after the fourth swig, a drug-sniffing K-9 approaches
the teenager and detects the drug.
At 7:38 p.m. Cruz is placed in handcuffs and
escorted to the security office. Soon after ingesting the drug, Cruz’s body
temperature soared to 105 degrees Fahrenheit and his pulse reached a rate of
220 beats per minutes. Baird notices him sweating and motions for him to wipe
his forehead. Surveillance video in the security office shows Cruz in visible
distress, rocking and shaking while handcuffed. No medical help has been called
for at this point.
Cruz continued sweating profusely. Clenching his
fists and he begins to shout repeatedly “Mi corazón! Mi corazón!”, which
translates to “My heart! My heart!” Cruz was experiencing all the typical signs
of Methamphetamine overdose: increased heart rate, extreme rise in body temperature,
and possibly a stroke.
By the time paramedics arrived, Cruz could no
longer stand on his own. Officers reported that his eyes were rolling and that
he was thrashing so violently that they handcuffed the teenager to the
guardrails. Cruz lost consciousness in the ambulance.
He was pronounced dead when they arrived at the
hospital.
Thirty minutes elapsed between the time that
Cruz took his first sip and when the officers decided to call for paramedics.
The testimony from the two officers is contradictory, with Baird claiming that
Pellaron had suggested that Cruz drink the liquid, saying that he “does it all
the time” in other roles as CBP officer. Yet Pellaron stated under sworn
testimony, “I never asked him to [drink the liquid], he volunteered to, and I
believe I gestured for him to go ahead”.
Border agents have access to drug kits which
allow them to safely test any substance they suspect to be illicit drugs.
Neither officer bothered to retrieve any such field test kits. Instead they had
the teenager test the substance on himself.
In March, more than three years after his
death,
the Velasquez family was awarded $1
million after settling a wrongful death
lawsuit
against the US government and the two
border officers. To this day no
apology or any
admission of wrongdoing has been issued. No
punitive measure was
ever brought against
the officers and both remain employed by
CBP in San Diego.
The family’s lawyer, Eugene Iredale, told ABC
News that the family believes Cruz was recruited as a drug mule, likely by
members or associates of a drug cartel. Cases of people being paid to carry
drugs across the border are quite common.
An immigrant recently
deported by the US government told the WSWS that the cartels will target
deportees who are dropped at bus stations just over the border. In these cases,
the victims are beaten, tortured, and held for ransom before being turned into
mules.
It is believed that this incident was Cruz’s
first experience carrying out such an operation, and that he was being paid a
small sum of cash in return. Cruz clearly did not understand the potency or
danger of the drugs he was carrying, or he presumably would not have agreed to
drink the liquid. In all likelihood, the boy was convinced by drug smugglers
that he would not be stopped, and was persuaded by the idea of earning money of
his own. It is also very possible that he or his family’s wellbeing was
threatened if he did not agree to participate.
Cruz attended high school in Tijuana, Mexico,
just over the US border. He worked, helping his grandmother run a small
business that supported his family. Most days he looked after his younger
sister, Reyna, who relied on him after their parents separated. “He was kind of
my dad,” Reyna told reporters, “because since I was little he always helped me
with homework, teach me sports, and everything he could.”
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU)
obtained, through the Freedom of
Information Act, files of 149 cases from 2011
to 2015 in which unaccompanied minors
reported threats of, or actual physical
abuse,
including sexual abuse, by border officers.
These cases, including the
case of Cruz, took
place under the Obama administration.
The vast immigration apparatus which has been
built up over decades by both Republican and Democratic administrations has
produced an army of border agents and Immigration and Customs Enforcement
officers who, like the regular local police officers throughout the United
States, torment and often kill poor and working class individuals with impunity
on a regular basis.
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