Cartel war takes surprising turn as CIA involvement in Mexico surfaces
MEXICO CITY — Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said Wednesday that her government was never informed that CIA agents would participate in a raid on a secret drug laboratory; This incident occurred amid rising tensions between the United States and Mexico over how to combat the cartels.
Four CIA agents were involved, according to sources familiar with the operation, raising questions about the scope of the agency’s activities in Mexico.
Sunday’s raid marked at least the third time this year that CIA agents have joined authorities in the northern border state of Chihuahua in an operation against a drug target, sources said.
Agents in Sunday’s raid wore Chihuahua State Investigative Agency uniforms to blend in with Mexican authorities, said people familiar with the operation who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal matters. A CIA spokesman said the agency had no comment.
U.S. agencies, including the CIA, regularly provide intelligence to Mexican police and military, but foreign agents are prohibited from participating in law enforcement operations by the Mexican Constitution.
President Trump has repeatedly suggested that U.S. forces could take action against cartels in Mexico, even designating various cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, but Sheinbaum has vehemently denied any involvement, saying it would violate Mexico’s sovereignty.
Sources familiar with the operation said the CIA’s involvement reflected the Trump administration’s growing demands for results in the fight against the cartels on Mexican soil.
Pointing to the need for bilateral cooperation, Sheinbaum said that “any relationship with the U.S. government” – especially security-related issues – should be directed through the Mexican federal government, especially the foreign ministry.
But he said the cooperation should not include foreign agents operating in Mexico. “This is a requirement included in both the Constitution and the laws,” he said.
Sovereignty in Mexico is a major issue, given the history of US interventions in Mexico, particularly the 1846–48 war in which Mexico lost half of its territory to the US.
Without specifically mentioning the CIA, Sheinbaum said the country’s military “did not know that there were persons involved (individuals who were neither Mexican citizens nor members of the security agencies of the State of Chihuahua), but rather that foreigners were involved in this operation. And this is a matter that should not be taken lightly by any Mexican.”
He said that members of the Council of Ministers approached the US Embassy to get an explanation about the presence of US agents in the raid.
Sunday’s raid on the laboratory, an otherwise routine incident, made headlines in Mexico after it emerged that two CIA members and two Mexican officials were killed in a nighttime vehicle crash following a raid on the mountain hideout.
People familiar with the operation said two other CIA officials were present during the raid.
According to the Chihuahua attorney general’s office, as authorities were returning from the raid, the driver of the vehicle carrying the two agents left the road and plunged hundreds of meters down the mountain, then burst into flames.
A person familiar with the crash said two other CIA agents, following in a pickup truck, went down the mountain on foot in the hope of rescuing their colleague, but it was too late.
The operation brought together CIA officers and state officials in Chihuahua, and the collaboration was a source of consternation for Mexican federal officials. Sheinbaum said he was considering possible sanctions against the Chihuahua state government.
There was alarm within Sheinbaum’s security cabinet that the CIA was working directly with government officials without notifying Mexican counterparts, people familiar with the group’s deliberations said.
Under the previous Mexican administration, the government operated a powerful counterintelligence force that tracked U.S. law enforcement efforts across the country, a person familiar with the operations said. That person said this incident showed the exact opposite.
When news of the operation broke on Sunday, Chihuahua’s attorney general, César Jáuregui Moreno, tried to downplay its significance, insisting that U.S. officials were not involved in the drug bust. He said the operation was carried out by 40 members of the State Investigation Agency and 40 members of the Mexican army.
In his statement, Jáuregui described the Americans as “US Embassy instructors” who were teaching a course on drone operation in the state at the time.
The director of the State Investigative Service said that while returning to the city of Chihuahua, he encountered Americans “who asked for assistance in traveling with the convoy in which the director was traveling.”
“They got into the vehicle around two in the morning and had an accident in which they lost their lives when the vehicle left the road and entered one of the valleys in the area,” Jáuregui added in his statement.
Fisher is a special correspondent. This article was published alongside: Puente News collaborator, A nonprofit bilingual newsroom covering stories from Mexico and the U.S.-Mexico border.
