Mexico Accuses Ex-Chihuahua Attorney General Of Treason For Letting US Agents Join Cartel Lab Raid

Mexican federal prosecutors have accused a former state attorney general of treason for allowing US agents to join a drug-lab raid, and they arrested him again within hours of a state judge ordering him not to be jailed. Federal agents took Cesar Jauregui Moreno into custody after a Chihuahua court hearing ended Sunday night, and he is being taken to Mexico City to face a federal judge, with a transfer to the Altiplano prison, El Universal reported.

Federal Attorney General Ernestina Godoy announced the case Saturday in a video message, saying the investigation found he “may have engaged in conduct that could possibly constitute the crime of treason” by allegedly letting foreigners “take part in actions that correspond exclusively to national security forces,” Reuters reported. Prosecutors allege he allowed US agents into an “irregular” April raid on a suspected drug laboratory without the authorization Mexican law requires. Jauregui has not been convicted of anything, and his defense argues the case is politically motivated.

The raid is the one that left two Americans dead. Between April 17 and 19, state and federal authorities dismantled a synthetic-drug lab in El Pinal, in the Sierra Tarahumara. On the way back, a vehicle went off the road and into a ravine, killing the state investigations chief, Pedro Roman Oseguera Cervantes, another state agent, and two Americans, Reforma reported. The Associated Press reported, citing a US official and two other people familiar with the matter, that the Americans worked for the CIA. The US Embassy had described them only as personnel “supporting Chihuahua state authorities’ efforts to combat cartel operations,” and the embassy, State Department and CIA declined to confirm the agency.

Jauregui said on April 20 that the Americans had not taken part in the operation, according to Reforma. Prosecutors later documented four foreign agents who accompanied Oseguera during it. Jauregui resigned on April 27, acknowledging “omissions” in the information and in institutional control, and was later questioned by federal prosecutors as a witness. Mexico News Daily reported that he and Governor Maru Campos both denied wrongdoing, and that President Claudia Sheinbaum said the CIA officers acted without the federal government’s knowledge, which she called a violation of Mexican law.

The state prosecutor’s case, separate from the federal treason charge, is where the fight played out last weekend. Reforma reported that the state charges are illegal exercise of public service and “coalition,” and that prosecutors say Jauregui ordered and coordinated the participation of four US agents in the raid, then hid their presence at a press conference by saying they were there for drone training. They presented about 20 witnesses and a protected witness. Judge Luis Alberto Simental Ortega refused their request to close the hearing on national-security grounds and excluded testimony from Guillermo Zuany Portillo, a former strategic-operations prosecutor who is himself a defendant with an arrest warrant out. Reforma said Jauregui told the judge he did not see the elements for the accusation against him.

The judge then refused to jail him before trial. Infobae reported that prosecutors argued he was a flight risk because of his foreign ties, and the judge answered that pretrial detention needs a specific justification and that his means alone did not show one. The conditions are surrendering his passport and US visa, signing in monthly and staying away from witnesses, and a hearing on whether to send the case to trial resumes Thursday, Oct. 22. Minutes after the ruling, Infobae said, the federal prosecutors served a treason warrant issued Saturday.