2 US Embassy officials among 4 killed in car crash following raid on drug den in Mexico

Four people, including two US embassy staff, were killed in a car crash following a major drug bust in northern Mexico, prosecutors said Sunday.

On Friday and Saturday, six clandestine drug labs were raided in Morelos, in northern Chihuahua state, after a three-month investigation, state prosecutor César Jáuregui told reporters.

Jáuregui initially said the accident happened when the police were returning from a drug raid, but after Mexican President Claudia Sheinbaum said she did not know the US was involved, the prosecutor later said the Americans were not involved in those activities.

“It was not a job the security cabinet knew about,” Sheinbaum told reporters Monday, according to the Associated Press. “We were not informed; it was the decision of the government of Chihuahua.”

Sheinbaum said he would seek an explanation and noted that any such collaboration would need to be approved by the federal government, “as established by the Constitution,” the AP reported.

Jáuregui then clarified later on Monday, “That operation involved the participation of only agents of the State Investigation Agency and the Mexican navy.”

Jáuregui said the Americans “worked mainly in training activities, eight to nine hours away from the place where it was happening.” He said they met with the director of the State Investigation Agency later, when he was returning from the raid.

“They were not from the operation. That is why, apparently, the president said that we were not informed about their participation,” said Jáuregui. “It was taken for granted that they were involved in the operation itself. I was informed about this at 2:00 in the morning. The information I had to give was the information I had at the time.”

The victim’s car, which was leading a convoy of five vehicles, ran off the road and plunged into a ravine, Jáuregui said at the weekend.

The Americans killed were “teacher officers” who specialized in training drones and other tactics, Jáuregui said.

The Jáuregui called the labs “one of the largest facilities in the country where chemical drugs were produced.”

In a press release, the attorney general’s office identified the two victims of the accident as the first director of the government’s investigative agency Pedro Román Oseguera Cervantes and officer Manuel Genaro Méndez Montes.

“We express our condolences and sympathies to the families of those who died in this terrible accident,” said a statement from the office.

The identities of the two American Embassy officials who died in the accident have not been released. US Ambassador Ronald Johnson paid tribute to the victims at the X post.

“We honor their dedication and tireless efforts to address one of the greatest challenges of our time,” Johnson said.

“This tragedy is a stark reminder of the risks those Mexican and American officers have taken to protect our communities,” he said, adding “it strengthens our determination to continue their work.”

Mexico has announced the dismantling of a number of drug labs in recent months after President Trump threatened military action to crack down on drug production in the country.

In February, Mexican naval personnel found a hidden drug laboratory in the Durango region of the country and “neutralized” it. 5,000 pounds of methamphetamine. In January, the authorities announced more than 1,500 pounds meth was seized from secret laboratories in the states of Durango, Sinaloa and Michoacán.