Two CIA Agents Die In Mexico Car Crash: ‘Were They Forced off the Road?’

Two CIA case officers were killed on Sunday in a car crash in Mexico, Mexican officials said.

Authorities in Chihuahua, where the crash occurred, said the two American agents and two Mexican officials were returning from a counter-cartel operation that sought to dismantle drug labs hidden in the area’s mountains. The Americans’ affiliation with the CIA was described to several outlets through sources familiar with the incident.

CNN’s John Miller laid out the questions surrounding the deadly car crash on Tuesday’s edition of The Lead, telling host Jake Tapper that more needed to be learned about the nature of the crash.

“Well, the CIA’s relationship with Mexico and the government there, and counter-narcotics effort is long and not much told about. But these are two case officers who died in a car accident coming back from a raid on a methamphetamine factory, basically,” said Miller. “The questions that have to be answered here are: let’s learn more about this car accident. What kind of car accident? Did they drive off the road? Were they forced off the road? Were they hit head-on? What is the nature of that? Can’t get much information on that through my reporting today.”

Chihuahua Attorney General César Jáuregui said Sunday that the group was driving from the operation at night through the mountains when the truck “appears to have skidded at some point and fell into a ravine, exploding.” Mexican officials confirmed the car exploded in a ravine.

Miller claimed there were additional questions surrounding the Mexican government’s involvement in the operation, a point which has yet to be fully explained in the days following the Sunday crash.

“The other debate is on the part of the Mexican government saying, were they authorized to be operating with state authorities on operations,” said Miller. “But it’s not uncommon, Jake, to have CIA officers who are involved in training and helping to guide these operations, even if they are not actually involved in the in the in the the gun carrying and arresting part.”

Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said on Monday that her cabinet was not aware of the operation with the CIA officials, claiming the Chihuahua government conducted the mission without informing her government. Sheinbaum demanded an explanation of the details of the operation, adding that an investigation would be launched to clarify if any Mexican national security laws had been broken.

“There are no joint operations on land or in the air” with American and Mexican authorities, she said Monday.

Sheinbaum then confirmed on Tuesday that the deceased U.S. officials were “working alongside” Mexican authorities. She claimed that the Mexican government would send a formal reprimand to President Donald Trump’s government if the investigation confirmed CIA involvement in the operation, as foreign agents need federal approval before operating on Mexican soil, even alongside state officials.

Jáuregui’s office said that the federal government was not informed due to the small number of agents involved in the mission, and that the Americans were located “about eight to nine hours away” from the location of the operation. He denied in a statement that the CIA agents were involved in the operation directly, claiming they were “instructors” who arrived after the operation was completed and helped to train personnel in areas “such as teaching the handling of drones.”

These statements seem to contradict a prior Monday release from Jáuregui’s office that claimed that all four killed were returning “from an operation to dismantle clandestine laboratories.”

The spokesman for the state attorney general’s office, who made the Monday release, later told The New York Times that the officials were involved in a training program that taught Mexican officials about the handling of synthetic drugs. The CIA has not commented publicly.

Watch above via CNN.

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