Judge orders Mexican cartel to pay billions of dollars for 2019 killings of nine American women and children

A Mexican drug cartel accused in the gruesome killings of nine women and children from an offshoot Mormon community must pay $1.5 billion to the families, a federal judge from North Dakota ruled.

The family members of the victims filed a lawsuit accusing the Juarez cartel of carrying out the November 2019 attack in Mexico as retribution for their public criticism and protests against the cartel. Cartel members allegedly fired hundreds of rounds of ammunition into vehicles and then set them on fire. Mexican authorities said in 2020 that the mastermind of the attack was one of 17 people arrested.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Clare Hochhalter's award will be automatically tripled under federal Anti-Terrorism Act, increasing the amount to $4.6 billion. The government can freeze assets of terrorist organizations, but it's unclear if the U.S. Treasury Department holds any cartel assets.