(C) BoingBoing This story was originally published by BoingBoing and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . CIA employees killed in Mexico during illegal operation [1] ['Séamus Bellamy'] Date: 2026-04-24 You may have missed it: this past weekend, while Trump was busy raising fuel prices and thrilling Putin in the waters off the coast of Iran, the U.S. Ambassador to Mexico slid in the fact that two employees of the American government were killed during an anti-drug operation in the Sierra de Chihuahua mountains, Chihuahua State, Mexico. Lamentamos profundamente la trágica pérdida de dos miembros del personal de la Embajada de los Estados Unidos, del Director de la Agencia Estatal de Investigación (AEI) de Chihuahua y de un elemento de dicha agencia en este accidente. Reconocemos su dedicación y sus incansables… — Embajador Ronald Johnson (@USAmbMex) April 19, 2026 On Monday, Mexico's leader, President Claudia Sheinbaum, held a press conference to ask, What the Hell? The United States hadn't asked Mexico's federal government for permission to operate in Mexican territory. She, like the rest of the world, would love an explanation. So would the American press. But no one is talking: It's almost the end of the week, and there hasn't been a peep from a single government agency claiming ownership for the two souls who died whilst trespassing on Mexican soil. May the Gods protect anonymous sources and whistleblowers. Sources told The Intercept the CIA has been running covert operations in Mexico alongside vetted state-level police, and the Americans died after a raid on a synthetic drug lab. According to The Intercept, in January, the Joint Interagency Task Force-Counter Cartel (JIATF-CC) was created at the behest of everyone's favorite orange skidmark. JIATF-CC was supposed to deliver actionable intelligence to the Mexican government on Cartel Operations. Instead, it seems that members of the task force circumvented the Mexican government by appealing to the egos of local and Chihuahua state law enforcement agencies for permission to operate in the area. Because if there's one thing a goof in sweaty body armor loves more than a Punisher morale patch, it's being able to say they're working with the CIA. It'd be nice to say this was surprising, but at this point? Nah. This crap has been building for a while. Last year, the Trump administration decided to declare that the major players in the Mexican, Central, and South American drug cartel game — Cártel de Jalisco Nueva Generación, Sinaloa Cartel, the Michoacán family, the Northeast Cartel, the United Cartels, the Gulf Cartel, MS-13 (El Salvador), and the Tren de Aragua (Venezuela) — were all narco terrorists who needed a paddlin'. Around the same time, Grandpa Puddin' Brain told reporters that maybe he'd okay American anti-drug operations within the borders of other nations. Then, in March, as part of Whisky Pete Hegseth's bullshit war crimes campaign Operation Southern Spear, the United States military got to work with Ecuador's special forces on what were suspected to be transport hubs for narcotics. That's an awful lot of hustle for a clown in greasepaint who campaigned on a promise to stay the hell out of foreign wars if he were to be elected back into office. However, it's just the right amount of hustle for someone trying to create enough chaos and blood for something like the Epstein Files to get lost in. Previously: [END] --- [1] Url: https://boingboing.net/2026/04/24/cia-employees-killed-in-mexico-during-illegal-operation.html Published and (C) by BoingBoing Content appears here under this condition or license: Creative Commons BY-NC-SA 3.0. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/boingboing/