Chihuahua prosecutors deny Governor María Eugenia Campos knew of U.S. agents’ involvement, Digi Mart USA News (Chihuahua, Mexico): The Chihuahua State Attorney General’s Office denied that Governor María Eugenia Campos Galván knew of or authorized the participation of U.S. officials in the institution’s operational activities.
The statement responded to a report in The New York Times citing former special prosecutor Guillermo Arturo Zuany Portillo, who is currently a fugitive.
Zuany Portillo reportedly said the governor was aware of the presence of Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents in the state. In a statement, the prosecutor’s office said none of the evidence added so far to the investigation file on an operation carried out in April 2026 in the municipality of Morelos, in the Sierra Tarahumara, shows that the governor had knowledge of or authorized the intervention of foreign nationals.
The office said the investigation includes 150 statements from 86 people, along with documentary, expert and technical evidence, and that this points to information about the participation of the U.S. citizens having been “concealed” from the governor.
According to the office, this was the hypothesis a control judge considered probable when ordering the prosecution of former Chihuahua attorney general César Jáuregui Moreno, although the statement did not name him.
The prosecutor’s office also addressed the statements attributed to Zuany Portillo, a former special prosecutor for Strategic Operations against whom an arrest warrant is in effect. It said those statements “are not part of the investigation file” and that it does not comment on versions expressed outside the legal process.
It also said it would not comment on the identity or institutional affiliation of the foreigners, who appear in the investigation as U.S. citizens, or on documents not yet presented to it.
The investigation continues in its complementary stage within the deadline set by the judge, and its contents were shared with the Attorney General’s Office of Mexico (FGR) as part of collaboration between the two institutions.
Governor Campos declined to comment on the New York Times report. During a visit to Ciudad Juárez, she told reporters the matter falls to the judicial authorities and that the state executive branch is not involved.
“I have nothing to say about it; that is up to the judicial authorities, the Executive is not involved,” she said. Asked about Zuany Portillo’s statements, she said he should tell the New York Times or a judge.
The New York Times investigation, by Steve Fisher and Jack Nicas, reported that the CIA covertly expanded its operations in Mexico through an alliance with Zuany Portillo, who allegedly facilitated the participation of U.S. agents in field missions in Chihuahua.
Based on confidential records and testimony from about two dozen officials in Mexico and the United States, the report said foreign agents trained local police and actively took part in operations over more than six months.
According to the newspaper, Zuany Portillo allegedly facilitated the deployment of U.S. officers in exchange for Washington restoring his visa, which had been revoked months earlier over suspected ties to criminal groups.
The report also said that, in a text message to journalists, the former official stated that Campos was aware of the CIA’s presence in Chihuahua.
The report added that during tactical raids, CIA agents carried firearms, tactical vests, laptops and even official Chihuahua state insignia, according to sources consulted.
The arrangement described by the newspaper broke down in April 2026, after an operation in the Sierra Tarahumara to dismantle a clandestine methamphetamine laboratory. On April 19, during the convoy’s return, one vehicle fell into a ravine nearly 100 meters deep and caught fire.
The crash killed two U.S. agents, Pedro Román Oseguera Cervantes, director of the State Investigation Agency (AEI), and a state escort.
According to the report, after the crash Zuany Portillo instructed those present to remove the bodies of the U.S. agents and ensure they carried no Mexican agency insignia.
