Mexico Says 4 Foreigners Were at Cartel Raid Where Two C.I.A. Officers Di...

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Mexico Says 4 Foreigners Were at Cartel Raid Where Two C.I.A. Officers Died

Mexican officials revealed that four foreigners — not two — were present during a counter-drug operation in northern Mexico where a crash killed two men later identified as C.I.A. officers.

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A suspected methamphetamine lab in a remote part of the state of Chihuahua, Mexico.

Credit...

Attorney General's Office of Chihuahua

By

Paulina Villegas

Reporting from Mexico City

April 28, 2026,

3:16 p.m. ET

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Four foreigners — not two — were on the ground during a counter-cartel operation last week in northern Mexico, where an automobile crash killed two men that were later

confirmed

to be Central Intelligence Agency officers, a Mexican state prosecutor said on Monday.

The two C.I.A. officers, along with two Mexican officials, died on April 19 when their vehicle plunged off a remote mountain road in the northern state of Chihuahua as they returned from an operation led by Mexico’s armed forces to dismantle a large clandestine methamphetamine lab. The state authorities had initially said only two foreigners were part of the operation.

The episode set off a tense standoff between President Claudia Sheinbaum of Mexico and the government of Chihuahua state, where she has directed much of her frustration. She has repeatedly said her security cabinet had no knowledge of C.I.A. activities on the ground in the state and warned they may have been illegal, launching a federal investigation into the matter.

She has also demanded information from the United States to clarify the role of the two C.I.A. agents in the operation to determine whether it violated Mexico’s security laws, which bar foreign agents from operating in the country without prior federal authorization.

Speaking to reporters on Monday evening, Wendy Paola Chávez, the Chihuahua special prosecutor, said there were in fact four foreigners at the scene, not just the two C.I.A. officers, though she did not confirm whether the two additional officers were Americans or whether they were members of the C.I.A.

She said the four foreigners were dressed as civilians with their faces mostly covered, and they carried no weapons or identification. They were working directly with the head of the state investigative agency, she said, and that their participation was limited, “with no direct operational interaction,” except with the agency’s director, who was also killed in the crash. She also said that the two unidentified agents, along with Mexican officers, tried to rescue the car crash victims.

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