Second Alleged Covert CIA Operation in Mexico Linked to Deadly Explosion: Report

A deadly car explosion near Mexico City is now being described as a second alleged covert CIA-linked operation inside Mexico, raising new questions about how far U.S. intelligence activity has expanded in the fight against drug cartels and whether Mexican authorities knew enough about it.

CNN reported Tuesday that the blast, which destroyed a vehicle carrying an alleged cartel operative earlier this spring near the Felipe Ángeles International Airport, or AIFA, was not an accident but a targeted attack allegedly facilitated by CIA officers on the ground.

According to the report, the alleged target was Francisco Beltrán, alias "El Payín," a suspected operator for the Sinaloa Cartel. The explosion took place in the State of Mexico, near one of the busiest highway corridors outside Mexico City and close to AIFA, turning what first appeared to be a violent cartel episode into a possible sovereignty dispute between Mexico and the United States.

Mexican authorities rejected CNN's account, saying Mexico's government denied that the CIA was behind the operation that killed a cartel member outside the capital.

"Regarding the version circulated by CNN about an explosion in Tecámac, State of Mexico, which alleges CIA involvement in operations against cartels, the Government of Mexico categorically rejects any narrative that seeks to normalize, justify or suggest the existence of lethal, covert or unilateral operations by foreign agencies on Mexican territory," said secretary of security and civilian protection Omar H García Harfuch on social media.

The report lands less than a month after another operation exposed a suspected CIA presence in Mexico. In April, two U.S. officials and two Mexican state officials were killed in a vehicle crash in Chihuahua after an anti-drug operation involving a clandestine methamphetamine lab. Reuters reported that President Claudia Sheinbaum said she had not known U.S. embassy officials were working with Chihuahua authorities and that her government would review whether Mexico's national security law had been violated.

That Chihuahua case already caused political fallout. Mexico sent a diplomatic note warning that unauthorized U.S. involvement in anti-drug operations must not happen again. The controversy also contributed to the resignation of Chihuahua state prosecutor César Jáuregui, who said he had shared incomplete and inconsistent information about the U.S. officials' role.

CNN's new report, if confirmed, would suggest the AIFA-area explosion was not an isolated event but part of a broader, more aggressive U.S. intelligence posture inside Mexico. Mexican authorities, however, have publicly rejected that version. That contradiction is central to the story: Washington has not publicly confirmed a covert assassination campaign, while Mexico is denying that the CIA carried out the deadly blast.

The allegations come as President Donald Trump has intensified pressure on Mexican cartels, including by pushing a harder line against fentanyl trafficking and organized crime. His administration has treated cartels as a national security threat, a framing that has alarmed Mexican officials because it can open the door to unilateral U.S. action.