WASHINGTON (AP) — Two U.S. officials killed in a vehicle crash as they returned from destroying a clandestine drug lab in northern Mexico over the weekend were working for the CIA, according to a U.S. official and two other people familiar with the matter.
Two Mexican investigators also were killed in the crash, which Mexican authorities said occurred while the convoy was returning from an operation to destroy drug labs of criminal groups. There have been discrepancies in the public accounts of what happened from U.S. and Mexican officials, which experts say underscores heightened American involvement in security operations in Mexico and across the region.
The CIA's involvement was confirmed Tuesday by the three with knowledge of the crash, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive intelligence matters. That the U.S. officials worked for the CIA was reported earlier by The Washington Post.
It comes after days of contradictions from Mexican and U.S. authorities about the role that American officials played in an operation to bust a narco-laboratory in northern Chihuahua state.
The lack of clarity from authorities reignited a debate over the extent of U.S. involvement in Mexico's security operations as Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum faces extreme pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump's administration to crack down on cartels. Trump has taken a more aggressive stance toward Latin America than any leader in recent U.S. history, capturing Venezuela's president, blockading oil shipments to Cuba and launching joint military operations in Ecuador, a country also marked by criminal violence.
Trump has repeatedly offered to take action on Mexican cartels, an intervention that Sheinbaum has said was "unnecessary."
The CIA officers were initially identified as U.S. embassy personnel by U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Ron Johnson, who is himself a former CIA employee.
The U.S. Embassy declined Monday to identify the individuals or which entity of the U.S. government they worked for, but said the officials were "supporting Chihuahua state authorities' efforts to combat cartel operations." The embassy, State Department and CIA declined to comment on the identities of reports of CIA involvement in the operation.
Local Mexican officials originally claimed they were working with the U.S. on an operation, but later walked those comments back after the effort came under scrutiny from Sheinbaum.
Sheinbaum said she knew nothing of a joint operation between Chihuahua's government and the U.S. despite reports that the Mexican army was also involved in the raid on the lab.
She maintained in a Tuesday press briefing that she didn't know if the officials were part of the CIA but acknowledged that state officials and the U.S. "were working together."
It's a sensitive issue for the Mexican leader as she walks a careful line with the Trump administration, working to maintain a strong relationship to offset threats of U.S. intervention on cartels and tariffs while also underscoring Mexico's sovereignty.
The CIA has recently expanded its collaboration with Mexican authorities, part of the Trump administration's effort to stop the flow of illicit drugs.
The presence of U.S. intelligence officials in Mexican territory has been the subject of ongoing debate, which has only intensified after Trump's military actions in Venezuela and Iran.
Last year, Sheinbaum said the U.S. had conducted surveillance drone flights at Mexico's request after a series of conflicting public statements.
The most recent controversy surfaced in January over the detention in Mexico of former Canadian athlete Ryan Wedding, one of the United States' most wanted fugitives. While Mexican officials claim he surrendered at the U.S. Embassy, U.S. authorities have described his capture as the result of a binational operation.
"There is a rise of hidden operations by the United States in Mexico under Trump," said David Saucedo, a Mexican security analyst. "They're hidden because … the Mexican government has a discourse that they can't permit the presence of armed U.S. agents — it's a kind of violation of sovereignty. The Mexican government has always tried to hide this collaboration."
Janetsky reported from Mexico City. AP writer Zeke Miller contributed to this report.