Juarez Cartel Ordered to Pay $4.6 Billion for Gruesome Killings of 9 American Mormons in Mexico

A federal court in North Dakota has issued a multibillion-dollar judgment against the notorious Juarez Cartel of Mexico for the gruesome killings of nine U.S. citizens in 2019.

According to the Bismarck Tribune, U.S. Magistrate Judge Clare Hochhalter sided with the victims' families, who sued the Juarez Cartel.

The families accused the Mexican drug cartel of ambushing three SUVs along a dirt road in Bavispe town in Mexico's Sonora state on November 6, 2019, which resulted in the deaths of their loved ones.

According to court documents, a hundred cartel gunmen split into two groups and fired into the three vehicles from a distance.

Reports said the gunmen fired hundreds of rounds and set the vehicles on fire. Court documents said this was "a signature move" of the Juarez Cartel.

The victims were Maria Rhonita LeBaron and four of her children, which include 8-month-old twins; Dawna Langford and her two children, ages 11 and 2, and Christina Langford.

Mexico's Juarez Cartel Ordered to Pay $4.6 Billion to Bereaved Families

The Washington Post reported that the judge awarded the families more than $1.5 billion. However, because the United States labels the Juarez Cartel as a known drug trafficker, the award is automatically tripled under the Federal Anti-Terrorism Act, making the total amount $4.6 billion.

The victims' families, who lived in North Dakota at the time of the killings, filed civil lawsuits against the cartel in 2020 and later consolidated it into one suit.

The victims were all members of an offshoot Mormon community and were in a three-vehicle caravan at the time of the ambush.

The victims' families have accused the Juarez Cartel of carrying out the attack as retribution for public criticism and protests against the drug cartel.

However, court documents stated that the end goal of the cartel for doing this brutal act was to take back territory from a rival Mexican drug cartel.

Survivors in Ambush in Mexico Detail Violence by the Juarez Cartel

The judge heard testimonies from the survivors of the attack, as well as several experts, during the weeklong trial which took place last February.

Borderland Beat reported that one expert who testified said some of the victims actually survived the initial hail of gunfire and were still conscious. However, Dr. Sebastian Schubl, director of medical operations at the University of California-Irvine Health Administration, noted that what truly killed them was when the vehicles were set on fire.

Schubl, who testified as one of the experts, said that in addition to being shot, LeBaron also had the terror of being helpless in seeing her children shot and then die in a horrible way when the fire started.

Court documents also revealed that the children saw some of their siblings die from gunshot wounds. After the Juarez Cartel members left, some of the survivors managed to walk in near-freezing temperatures to find help.

After the attack, several family members of the victims flew to Mexico and found their loved ones already deceased.

According to The Bismarck Tribune, the Juarez cartel did not respond to a published summons or send any representative during the trial in March. The trial was reportedly held to establish wrongful death and pain-and-suffering damages for the victims and their families.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Rick Martin

WATCH: 9 Members of Mormon Family Killed in Mexico - From ABC News