A Mexican drug cartel has been ordered to pay $4.6 billion for allegedly killing three mums and six children in a brutal attack.
In November 2019, the Juarez cartel allegedly fired ‘hundreds’ of rounds into the vehicles of Mormon community members who had publicly criticised their activity. The cartel is said to have then set fire to the vehicles, which contained three mums and their children. No one survived the attack.
A North Dakota judge ordered the cartel to cough up $1.5 billion for the families, however, because the lump sum was brought under the federal Anti-Terrorism Act, it’s automatically tripled.
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The cartel’s alleged attack took place near the U.S. border in Mexico on 4 November 2019 and resulted in the deaths of Maria Rhonita LeBaron and four of her children, who were aged 12 and 10.
LeBaron’s 8-month-old twins also died, as did Dawna Langford and her children, aged 11 and 2, and Christina Langford, according to The Bismark Tribune.
All of those killed were members of an offshoot Mormon community and their families filed the civil lawsuit against the cartel in 2020.
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Court documents called the cartel’s alleged choice to fire rounds into the vehicles before setting them alight its ‘signature move’.
LeBaron’s husband, Howard Miller, and Langford’s husband, Tyler Johnson, filed a lawsuit against the cartel under the Anti-Terrorism Act two years ago along with other members of LeBaron and Langford’s family.
Mexican newspapers served the cartel notice of the pending trial, during which US Magistrate Judge Clare Hochhalter heard ‘harrowing’ testimonies from both witnesses and experts.
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The cartel did not attend the North Dakota trial or respond to summons and it’s so far unclear whether the cartel will have its assets frozen or be forced to pay summons by the US government.
Grieving father and husband David Langford said: “The horror that my children experienced and my entire family has been through as the result of the Nov. 4, 2019, killing of [wife] Dawna Langford and my two children by the Juarez cartel will never, ever be made right.”
He added: "We went into a United States courtroom in North Dakota seeking some acknowledgment of and measure of justice for the trauma inflicted on our family and we received it.”
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Topics: US News, World News, Crime
Aisha Nozari