Mexico Arrests Ex-Chihuahua AG in Sovereignty Case

César Jáuregui entered federal custody on a treason charge linked to allegations that CIA officers joined a drug-lab raid in Chihuahua without the Mexican government’s knowledge or authorization. The case asks whether state officials let foreign agents participate in an operation that federal authorities say falls under powers reserved for the national government.

Federal agents arrested Jáuregui in Chihuahua city Sunday night and transferred him to the Altiplano federal prison Monday morning, October 19. He faces state charges of unlawful exercise of public office and conspiracy by public officials, along with the federal treason charge. A conviction could bring five to 40 years in prison.

Federal authority and sovereignty

The alleged raid took place in Chihuahua in April. Four CIA agents allegedly took part in an operation led by Chihuahua’s State Investigation Agency, or AEI. Afterward, two CIA agents and two Chihuahua state police officials, including the AEI’s head, died in a car accident in the municipality of Morelos, in the Sierra Tarahumara.

In a video message Saturday, Federal Attorney General Ernestina Godoy called the raid an “irregular operation” and “an attack on the federal pact and the separation of powers.” She said Mexico’s Constitution and National Security Law bar states from assuming powers assigned to the federal government or transferring governmental powers to foreign authorities.

Godoy said the Federal Attorney General’s Office found in its investigation that Jáuregui allegedly allowed foreign nationals to operate in Mexico without authorization and carry out activities reserved for federal forces. “This undermines the nation’s sovereignty and territorial integrity, as such conduct is expressly prohibited by the Constitution,” she said.

Godoy also alleged that Jáuregui kept information from federal authorities. “The State Attorney General’s Office, through its head, was required to inform the federal government [about the operation]. It did not do so,” she said. The investigation file, she added, including information supplied by the Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office, showed that the foreigners’ participation “had no justification whatsoever.”

State officials and the raid

On Monday, President Claudia Sheinbaum said Chihuahua’s government lacked authority to “dismantle a [drug] laboratory.” That power belonged to the Federal Attorney General’s Office. She called it “very irresponsible, to say the least,” to let foreign agents join a ground operation against the law.

Sheinbaum also pointed to the operation’s circumstances: after the raid, Chihuahua officials and CIA agents traveled at night along a dangerous, winding road. She lamented the deaths in the crash, then said the operation violated the law because federal authorities weren’t informed and foreign agencies can’t conduct ground operations.

In May, Chihuahua Governor Maru Campos said she had neither authorized nor known about the CIA’s presence in the state. Sheinbaum said she knew of no evidence tying Campos to state officials’ alleged authorization and said the Federal Attorney General’s Office must clarify the matter.

Investigation remains open

Jáuregui served as Chihuahua’s attorney general from January 2023 until he resigned in April 2026. Authorities first arrested him Saturday on state and federal charges. A judge ruled Sunday night that he didn’t have to remain in pretrial detention on the state charges; federal agents then took him into custody on the treason charge and flew him to Toluca, México state.

In April, The Los Angeles Times reported that the raid on the weekend of April 18 and 19 was “at least the third time this year that CIA operatives joined authorities in the northern border state of Chihuahua in an operation against a drug target.” Guillermo Arturo Zuany Portillo, the former head of the Strategic Operations division of the Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office, is wanted in connection with the April raid and hadn’t been detained.

Sheinbaum said the federal investigation remained unfinished and authorities were examining Jáuregui’s involvement in “other matters.” She also said it was “good that the Chihuahua Attorney General’s Office is prosecuting an attorney general who broke the law.”