Death at San Ysidro; border officers encourage teen to drink liquid meth at Point of Entry

by Chivis Martinez for Borderland Beat

Cruz drinks meth as CBP officer smiles

Last Friday night, ABC news on their weekly news magazine 20/20, a report was presented whereby a 16 year old Mexican high schooler was encouraged to drink fluid the teen claimed was juice, but what custom border patrol agents suspected was meth. He complied multiple times. Four to be exact.

And within 2 hours he died an excruciating death, after congesting a concentrated form of liquid meth that was 100 times greater strength than normal.

The event transpired in November, 2013 at the San Ysidro Port of Entry.  The San Ysidro POE is the land border crossing between San Diego and Tijuana, and the busiest land border crossing in the world. 50k plus southbound vehicles, and 25k plus northbound vehicles cross the POE each day.  Once ongoing construction to modernize and expand is completed, that number will experience a   substantial  increase.

By all accounts, from those who knew him best, 16 year old Cruz Velazquez, of Tijuana, always was a good kid.  His future plans included earning a university degree.  However, his sister says he had recently begun associating with a group of dubious young people that were different than his regular group.

Cartels recruit high schoolers to work as drug mules.  Especially those with the fast track visa cards issued to people making regular crossings.  Most often they are allowed through without a problem.

In this case, he was spotted because he was acting nervous.  He was directed to an interview area known as “secondary inspection”.  

He was interviewed by two agents, a female and male.  In the search of his backpack, there was a discovery of two plastic bottles, one labeled Apple Juice the other Black Tea.  The agents noticed that the liquid which should have been different was exact in appearance.  Setting the bottles on the counter they questioned the teen about the contents being drugs.  He emphatically denied they were anything other than juice.

So far the story is indisputable by all parties concerned.

But, what the video, without audio, depicts are the agents gesturing to the boy to drink the liquid.  Witnesses say the agents told the boy that if the solution was not drugs, why not take a drink?

Another witness, a CBP agent, testified the female agent was distraught after Cruz was taken to the hospital wondering if she would lose her job for “asking the boy to drink the liquid”. Quickly she changed her story and denied ever instructing Cruz to drink the liquid.  Same with the male agent.  It is against Customs and BP policy to do such a thing.  Proper protocol is to request a drug test, available within a few feet of the counter.   And to test the suspicious substance which only takes a couple of minutes.

Why Cruz swallowed the meth four times, seemingly without hesitancy, is the guess of anyone.  This reporter having raised three children through the teen years, and having been a teen myself, can guess that he felt invincible. 

His brain has not fully developed at age 16, and will not be for another 6 years. The prefrontal cortex is the last to mature and it involves the control of impulses and decision-making. Therefore, teenagers still need to learn how to control reckless, irrational and irritable behavior of all types.  He in no way thought he would die.  He obviously did not know the lethal strength of the drug, or the consequence of the action.  

He was simply trying to solve a serious problem that was before him.  No thinking beyond that.  Sad fact is even if he would be convicted of the crime, his time in jail would have been about six months and deported.  That is another reason cartels select teens.

Cruz was warned by the cartel he was transporting for, that if, for any reason he failed to get the product across, his sister would be killed.  Before he became comatose  he screamed “my sister” multiple times.  As a BB reader suggested, maybe that is why he drank the “juice”.

In full disclosure, yes he was committing a crime, yes he should be held accountable for his actions, but that accountability should not have resulted in the death penalty.

The United States government paid the family 1 million dollars.  No apology included.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection promised the two officers involved would be punished, that it was only a question of what level of discipline would be used.

Neither of the two had any form of punishment or reprimand.

The majority of CBP and Border Patrol agents conduct themselves with integrity.  But, there are a growing number of bad apples, particularly at the POE’s that abuse their power in array of ways.

Body cams would go a long way to deter incidents such as this from occurring.

Note:
I thought this comment from a Borderland Beat follower was worthy of posting here with the article.  It is so profound and gives way to understanding that for some, perhaps many of us, the difference between ourselves and Cruz,  while making a horrible decision of our youth, was luck and not being caught and made to pay for our contraventions.  Cruz did wrong.  No argument there.  Very wrong. But so did the BP officers, and of the three only one is paid for his wrongdoing,  his sentence was a death sentence. Paying with his life at the age of 16.  

AnonymousJuly 31, 2017 at 7:40 PMI look back at some of the stupid decisions and choices I made as a teen. With one, if made to pay just consequence, it would have been barred from ever achieving the life and profession I have. I am Fire Chief in a city of over 500 thousand people. I could have been Cruz. That reality hits hard.