HomeNewsBriefMexican Federal Police Charged Over CIA Shooting
BRIEF

Mexican Federal Police Charged Over CIA Shooting

BELTRAN LEYVA ORG / 12 NOV 2012 BY EDWARD FOX EN

The federal agents involved in the attack against two CIA agents in central Mexico last August have been charged with attempted murder, casting further doubt on previous assertions that the shooting was an accident.

On November 9, Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office (PGR) formally charged 14 federal police officers with attempted murder, reported BBC Mundo.

The attack occurred on August 24 in central Morelos state when police agents in four unmarked vehicles opened fire on an armored diplomatic vehicle carrying two CIA personnel and a Mexican Navy captain. The US agents were injured in the attack and were immediately removed from the country.

The motive for the attack is still unclear and prosecutors in the case have stated that no theory will be overlooked, including the possibility that the police agents involved are linked to organized crime. In the immediate aftermath of the shooting, the government claimed that the officers mistook the car's occupants as suspects in a local kidnapping case. However, the fact that none of the officers were in uniform during the ambush has raised suspicions. 

InSight Crime Analysis

One theory to emerge is that the Beltran Leyva Organization (BLO) could have planned the attack. Both Mexican and US officials have stated on the condition of anonymity this may have been the case, with the former telling the Associated Press that the PGR was investigating links between the federal officers and the BLO.

While the BLO has suffered several blows in recent years, losing several top commanders, Morelos remains one of their strongholds where they have an alliance with the Zetas.

The incident is highly embarrassing for outgoing President Felipe Calderon. The federal police are the country’s premier law enforcement agency and are supposed to be less vulnerable to criminal infiltration than their state and municipal counterparts. The shadowy details of this case raise serious questions over just how reliable they can be in the fight against organized criminal groups. 

share icon icon icon

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

What are your thoughts? Click here to send InSight Crime your comments.

We encourage readers to copy and distribute our work for non-commercial purposes, with attribution to InSight Crime in the byline and links to the original at both the top and bottom of the article. Check the Creative Commons website for more details of how to share our work, and please send us an email if you use an article.

Was this content helpful?

We want to sustain Latin America’s largest organized crime database, but in order to do so, we need resources.

DONATE

Related Content

HOMICIDES / 19 OCT 2022

Mothers searching for their missing loved ones in Mexico have been murdered, threatened, and ignored, despite government pledges to protect…

ARMS TRAFFICKING / 24 AUG 2022

A new rule in the United States seeks to stem the flow of ghost guns, bought in parts online and…

BELTRAN LEYVA ORG / 7 JAN 2022

Murders have spiked in Mexico's northern state of Sonora, thanks to the volatile mix of a veteran drug trafficker's alleged…

About InSight Crime

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Contributes Expertise Across the Board 

22 SEP 2023

This week InSight Crime investigators Sara García and María Fernanda Ramírez led a discussion of the challenges posed by Colombian President Gustavo Petro’s “Total Peace” plan within urban contexts. The…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Cited in New Colombia Drug Policy Plan

15 SEP 2023

InSight Crime’s work on emerging coca cultivation in Honduras, Guatemala, and Venezuela was cited in the Colombian government’s…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime Discusses Honduran Women's Prison Investigation

8 SEP 2023

Investigators Victoria Dittmar and María Fernanda Ramírez discussed InSight Crime’s recent investigation of a massacre in Honduras’ only women’s prison in a Twitter Spaces event on…

THE ORGANIZATION

Human Trafficking Investigation Published in Leading Mexican Newspaper

1 SEP 2023

Leading Mexican media outlet El Universal featured our most recent investigation, “The Geography of Human Trafficking on the US-Mexico Border,” on the front page of its August 30…

THE ORGANIZATION

InSight Crime's Coverage of Ecuador Leads International Debate

25 AUG 2023

This week, Jeremy McDermott, co-director of InSight Crime, was interviewed by La Sexta, a Spanish television channel, about the situation of extreme violence and insecurity in Ecuador…