CIA Deaths Part of Wider Push Into Mexican Ops
Under Trump pressure, U.S. agencies get deeper into cartel fight putting Sheinbaum in tough spot
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In the early hours of Sunday morning, a convoy of state police vehicles drove over treacherous mountain roads in the remote Tarahumara Sierra in the southwest of Chihuahua, Mexico, near the border with Sinaloa. In at least one of the vehicles, possibly two, CIA agents rode with officers from Chihuahua’s State Investigation Agency, or AEI.
The AEI had spent two days dismantling a network of mega labs for synthetic drugs, which Chihuahua attorney general César Jáuregui described as “one of the biggest seizures in the country.” Run by a faction of the Sinaloa Cartel, which has long controlled crime in the region, the labs boasted dozens of barrels of powder, liquids, ovens and gas cylinders that could churn out crystal meth. The security forces located the labs with the help of surveillance drones, Jáuregui said.
As the convoy rolled back on the long drive towards Chihuahua city, a vehicle went over the edge of a narrow highland road and crashed into a ravine, killing the four occupants: an AEI officer, the AEI director and two CIA agents. The deaths have sparked questions about what how the CIA is involved in operations in Mexico, if it breaks a Mexican national security law, and who knew about it.
It comes as President Donald Trump has pushed for deeper U.S. involvement in the fight against cartels south of the border, putting President Claudia Sheinbaum in the tough spot of trying to appease him and defend Mexico’s sovereignty. There are also questions about the role of U.S. agents in various other ops, including the arrest of Canadian Snow King Ryan Wedding.
The CIA uses a structure that tries to guard the identities of its personnel. As well as running staff officers out of embassies and consulates, it employs a lot of contractors, including many former U.S. special forces, and routinely uses false names for its operatives making it tough to trace them. In this case, the CIA agents were…
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