OMM Newsroom
Federal prosecutors in Mexico have charged former Chihuahua state prosecutor César Jáuregui Moreno with treason, accusing him of allowing US agents to join an April raid on a suspected drugs laboratory without proper authorisation, according to the BBC.
Jáuregui served as attorney general of the northern border state of Chihuahua from 2023 until this year. He was arrested at the weekend, and a court hearing is scheduled for Saturday.
Mexico’s Attorney General, Ernestina Godoy Ramos, said Jáuregui had permitted foreign agents to carry out activities reserved for Mexican authorities and had failed to share information. Jáuregui has denied the allegations. A judge must decide whether there is sufficient evidence for the case to proceed, Reuters reported.
Jáuregui, a member of the conservative opposition PAN party, also faces state-level charges in Chihuahua, including abuse of public office. At a hearing on those charges on Sunday, he denied instructing or consenting to the US agents’ involvement in the operation.
The involvement of the Americans became known after two US agents, reported to have worked for the CIA, died in a car crash in Chihuahua alongside two Mexican law enforcement officers.
The crash occurred on 19 April, when a convoy returning from an operation targeting suspected methamphetamine laboratories in a remote, mountainous area left the road and plunged into a ravine. Officials said two members of the Chihuahua State Investigation Agency were killed along with the Americans.
At the time, Jáuregui said at a news conference that the Americans were “instructor officers” from the US embassy who were conducting “training work as part of the general and normal exchange we have with the US authorities”. US media have reported that the two individuals worked for the CIA as part of an expanded effort to combat drug trafficking in the region.
Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum has faced pressure from US President Donald Trump to crack down on drug trafficking. She has repeatedly declined offers of US-led counter-narcotics operations in Mexico, saying foreign officials may operate on Mexican soil only with prior federal government clearance and insisting the country’s sovereignty must not be breached.
