Two CIA Officers Among Four Dead in Chihuahua Car Accident, Sheinbaum Denies Knowledge of Joint Ground Operations

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

According to the Washington Post, citing two unnamed sources; the two U.S. embassy officials who died in an automobile accident in northern Mexico worked for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). Two others, including the Chihuahua AEI Director, were killed in the car accident as well.

The officials were returning from an operation in which they shut down six synthetic drug labs belonging to the Sinaloa Cartel.

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CIA Likely Behind December 18 and December 24 Land Strikes on Venezuelan Drug Targets

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

A firsthand account of an explosion along the Venezuelan coast on December 18 is raising questions about who may have been responsible for the attack and whether it and a supposed fire at a nearby chemical plant were either of the drone strikes confirmed by Trump on December 26.

Two members of Venezuela’s Wayuu indigenous community in the area told NBC News that they witnessed an unexplained explosion on December 18 that destroyed a hut along the coast that possibly was used for storage.

The arid coastal strip in the northwest of Venezuela, known as Alta Guajira, is heavily controlled by the National Liberation Army or ELN, an armed guerilla group known for its history of drug trafficking that is also active in neighboring Colombia.

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The Murky, CIA-Linked Past of Robert Sensi, Charged Alongside the Former DEA Official for Money Laundering

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

Paul Campo, 61, of Oakton, Virginia, who retired from the DEA in 2016 after a 25-year career, and Robert Sensi, 75, of Boca Raton, Florida, were caught in sting involving a DEA informant who posed as a member of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, prosecutors said.

Campo and Sensi appeared last week before a judge in New York, who ordered them detained without bail. Their lawyers entered not guilty pleas on their behalf. Campo’s lawyer, Mark Gombiner, called the indictment “somewhat sensationalized and somewhat incoherent.” He denied the two men had agreed to explore obtaining weapons for the cartel.

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CIA Reviewing Its Authority for Lethal Force Use on Cartel Targets

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat
From a CNN Exclusive Report

The CIA is reviewing its authorities to use lethal force against drug cartels in Mexico and beyond as the Trump administration moves to make taking on the cartels a major priority for the intelligence agency, according to a US official and three people briefed on the matter.

The review does not indicate President Donald Trump has ordered the CIA to take direct action against the cartels. But it is designed to help the agency understand what kinds of activities it could legally undertake and what the potential risks would be across the suite of options, the sources said — underscoring how seriously the Trump administration is considering the possibility.

It also highlights some US officials’ concerns that using traditional counterterrorism tools against cartels — as the Trump administration has said it intends to do — carries a much higher risk of collateral damage to American citizens than similar operations conducted in the Middle East, far from US soil.

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