Two CIA officers die in Mexico accident after counternarcotics operation

Two U.S. embassy officials who died in an automobile accident in northern Mexico as they returned from the scene of a counternarcotic operation worked for the Central Intelligence Agency as part of a significantly expanded role in battling narcotics trafficking in the Western Hemisphere, according to two people familiar with the matter.

The deadly car crash Sunday in the state of Chihuahua also took the lives of two Mexican officials and prompted Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum to say she would investigate whether the operation ran afoul of the country’s national security laws.

The CIA declined to comment.

The four died as they were returning from meeting with Mexican officials in the aftermath of the operation to dismantle a clandestine drug lab in a remote area. Chihuahua’s attorney general, César Jáuregui Moreno, told Mexico’s El Universal newspaper that the Americans did not directly participate in the Mexican raid on the lab, which he called “perhaps one of the largest ever located.”

Mexican officials said the car skidded off the road, fell down a ravine and exploded.

The accident comes amid increasing pressure from President Donald Trump on Mexico to take more action against the cartels, and as the CIA has broadened its counternarcotics operations in the country and elsewhere in Latin America. While Trump has occasionally threatened unilateral U.S. action against the cartels in Mexico, the CIA and other federal agencies have thus far stressed working in partnership with Mexican authorities.

The people familiar with the matter discussed the spy agency’s role in the events in Chihuahua on the condition of anonymity, because of the issue’s sensitivity.

Under CIA Director John Ratcliffe, the agency has taken a larger, more aggressive role in counternarcotics, one of Trump’s top priorities upon assuming office.

The agency has shared more intelligence with Mexican antidrug units and increased training for local counternarcotics units, current and former U.S. officials said. It has flown unarmed drones over Mexico to help track cartel leaders and locate illicit drug labs.

Intelligence provided by the CIA in February was critical in helping Mexican authorities locate Nemesio Rubén Oseguera Cervantes, the drug kingpin known as “El Mencho,” according to U.S. officials. Oseguera, who headed the Jalisco New Generation cartel, died in the operation as a result of gunshot wounds.

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