SAN DIEGO _ The case of a teenager from Tijuana, Mexico, who died screaming and going into convulsions after sipping liquid methamphetamine while in federal custody at the San Ysidro Port of Entry, has been settled with a $1 million payment to his family.
The agreement in San Diego federal court came more than three years after Cruz Marcelino Velazquez Acevedo was referred for secondary inspection after crossing into the United States through the pedestrian lanes on Nov. 18, 2013.
He died more than two hours later, just before 9 p.m., in a hospital emergency room after taking as many as four sips of the amber liquid that he carried in two juice bottles inside his knapsack. Claiming that the liquid was apple juice that he had purchased in Mexico, Velazquez drank it in the presence of two U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers, according to documents filed in federal court.
Attorneys for the two officers named in the complaint did not respond to queries about the civil lawsuit that alleged wrongful death, assault and battery, negligence and intentional infliction of emotional distress. The settlement was reached in January.
The officers named in the complaint continue to be employed by CBP in San Diego, the statement said.
The Mexican Consulate in San Diego and Eugene Iredale, the family's attorney, confirmed the $1 million payment.
"It's never enough when you lose a human life," said Marcela Celorio, the Mexican Consul General in San Diego, who called it a "high visibility case" for the Mexican government.
