In brief
César Jáuregui Moreno, former attorney‑general of Chihuahua, has been charged with treason for permitting US agents to participate in a drug‑lab raid in April. The operation, which led to a fatal crash that killed two Mexican officers and two U.S. men, was carried out without official authorization. Jáuregui denies the allegations and has been denied clearance by Mexican authorities for foreign involvement. The case highlights tensions between Mexico’s sovereignty and U.S. anti‑drug initiatives, especially amid President Claudia Sheinbaum’s insistence on prior clearance for foreign officials.
Federal prosecutors in Mexico have charged Cesar Jauregui Moreno with treason for allowing U.S. agents to join a raid on a suspected drug lab in April without proper authorisation.
Jauregui served as attorney general of the border state of Chihuahua from 2023 to this year.
Two U.S. agents, said to have worked for the CIA, belonged to the operation that disappeared in a car crash together with two Mexican law‑enforcement officers.
Attorney General Ernestina Godoy Ramos accused Jauregui of permitting foreign agents to conduct activities reserved for Mexican authorities and of withholding information from the federal government. Jauregui has denied the allegations.
The former prosecutor was arrested over the weekend; a court hearing is scheduled for Saturday. The judge must decide whether there is enough evidence to proceed with the treason case, according to Reuters.
Jauregui also faces state‑level charges in Chihuahua for abuse of public office. He denied instructing or consenting to the involvement of U.S. agents in the operation during a separate hearing on Sunday.
President Claudia Sheinbaum, pressured by former U.S. President Donald Trump to crack down on drug trafficking, has repeatedly refused U.S.‑led counter‑narcotics operations, insisting that foreign officials can act on Mexican soil only with prior federal clearance.
The crash occurred on 19 April when a convoy returning from an operation targeting suspected methamphetamine labs in a remote mountainous area veered off the road and plunged into a ravine, killing four people.
At the time of the operation, Jauregui claimed the U.S. men were “instructor officers” from the embassy engaged in “training work as part of the normal exchange with U.S. authorities.”
U.S. media report the two men worked for the CIA as part of an expanded effort to combat narcotics trafficking in the region.
