Still frames taken from surveillance video recorded by U.S. Customs and Border agents show a 16-year-old drinking a liquid meth concoction just hours before his 2013 death, NBC Los Angeles reported.
NBC Los Angeles obtained the video on Saturday, nearly four years after Cruz Marcelino Velazquez Acevedo's death. The US government has since paid $1 million in a settlement with Acevedo's family.
According to NBC Los Angeles, Acevedo, a resident of Tijuana, Mexico, was crossing the border into the United States near San Diego on November 18, 2013. Acevedo had two bottles of what he claimed was juice at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.
Border agents allegedly told Acevedo to drink the liquids, believing that Acevedo would confess that one of the bottles included meth. Acevedo then took four sips of the liquid.
The family's attorney told NBC Los Angeles that Acevedo was "coerced and intimidated" to drink the liquid.
"It's true that Cruz was doing something that was against the law. And that he did not have to be doing. That's a fact," Gene Iredale told the station. "It's also true that they did not point their guns at him or physically threaten him but in a social context in which this occurred, they knew exactly what they were doing."
Shortly after ingesting the liquid, Acevedo began complaining about his heart. He was transported to a hospital and died several hours later.
To read NBC Los Angeles' full report, click here.
