The two U.S. officials who were killed in a car crash in Mexico were working for the Central Intelligence Agency, according to reports.
The American officials died in the state of Chihuahua on Sunday as they were returning from a mission led by Mexican forces to destroy a remote methamphetamine lab in the state of Morelos, according to Mexican authorities.
They were operating with the CIA, two people familiar with the matter told The Washington Post.
U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ron Johnson, himself a former CIA officer, had initially identified the CIA officers as “two U.S. Embassy personnel” in a post announcing the deaths.
The U.S. Embassy on Monday declined to identify the individuals or the agency they worked for, but said the officials had been “supporting Chihuahua state authorities’ efforts to combat cartel operations,” according to the Associated Press.
The Daily Beast has reached out to the CIA and the State Department for comment.
Reports of the spy agency’s involvement come amid heightened tensions between Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum and U.S. President Donald Trump, who has threatened to intervene against cartels in Mexico.
After Trump in January declared that the U.S. “will now start hitting land, with regard to the cartels,” Sheinbaum spoke with him by phone and said an intervention was “not necessary.”
She said Monday that she was unaware of U.S. involvement in the operation in Chihuahua, which shares a border with the United States, adding that it was led by Chihuahua’s government.
The 63-year-old president said her government would launch an investigation to determine if any constitutional laws were broken, noting that Mexican states need federal authorization to collaborate with the U.S.
On Tuesday, Sheinbaum said she did not know whether the officials were working for the CIA, but acknowledged that Chihuahua officials and the U.S. “were working together.”
She added that if it is confirmed that CIA officers were involved in a joint operation, her government would deliver a formal rebuke to the United States.
Chihuahua’s attorney general, César Jáuregui Moreno, said that Sheinbaum was not briefed on the mission to dismantle the drug lab because it only involved roughly 40 Mexican agents, according to the Post. He said the Americans, whose agency he did not name, were participating in routine “training work” about “eight to nine hours away.”
The crash, which also killed two Mexican officials, occurred at night as the truck was driving through rugged mountains between Chihuahua and the state of Sinaloa. It skidded off the road, plunged into a ravine, and exploded, Jáuregui said, according to the Post.
