. >> reporter: it's 6:21 on a monday evening at the san ysidro, california border crossing. and the man in the white sweatshirt is a smuggler. a 16-year-old high school student by the name of cruz velasquez, with drugs hid nen two bottles in his shoulder bag. >> cruz was believe, as a mule. here, we'll give you $100 or $200 if you just take these bottles across the border. >> reporter: over the next one hour and 38 minutes this video obtained by abc news will show in gripping detail just how far u.s. border officers will go, encouraging or at least permitting this teenager to prove his innocence by drinking from a suspicious bottle, an encounter that will end up as a matter of life and death on the border. >> there is a clear history of agents and officers engaging in what i believe was serious misconduct. >> reporter: and our abc news investigation conducted with the non-profit investigative fund found that despite more than ten suspect deaths and hundreds of other allegations of misconduct and threats border officers and agents are rarely prosecuted or even punished. >> wi

. ♪ >> reporter: 6:21 on a monday evening at the san ysidro border crossing and the man in a 16-year-old high school student by the name of cruz velazquez with drugs hidden in two bottles in his shoulder bag. >> he was recruited, we believe, as a mule. here we'll give you 100 or $200 if you take these bottles across the border. >> reporter: but things go bad almost immediately. the young man appears nervous and these two customs and border protection officers start to examine the two bottles in his bag. >> so they know there's something funny, there's something fishy. what's in the bottles is highly concentrated methamphetamine. instead of conducting a standard field test the two officers encourage or at least permanent the young man to prove it's just juice as the family lawyer takes us through the video. >> cruz now points at the bottle and she's saying, okay, drink it and she makes the gesture that we associate with to drink now, watch the male agent. he says drink another one. you see them exchanging and smiles because they know what's going on. this is a game in which he's being pla