The Attorney General’s Office of the Republic (FGR) has initiated a new investigation against the Chihuahua Prosecutor’s Office for allegedly invading federal competencies. In a statement, the institution assured this Wednesday that the controversial operation on April 17 and 18, in which CIA agents allegedly participated to dismantle a drug lab without the knowledge of the central Government, could constitute a crime against national security and health law.
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The FGR statement was published one day after the ruling party announced it would push for an impeachment trial against the PAN governor of the State, Maru Campos. That initiative came as a reaction from Morena, the party of President Claudia Sheinbaum, to the opposition’s attempt to initiate a trial against the Morena governor of Sinaloa, Rubén Rocha Moya, accused in the United States of links to the Sinaloa Cartel.
In its note, the federal Public Ministry accused the Chihuahua authorities of only informing the central Government about the dismantling of the drug lab after it had been carried out. It also denounced that federal agents did not receive the formal handover of the chain of custody from their local counterparts. Nor were they provided with “the evidence or substances found,” according to the FGR.
It was based on these irregularities that federal investigators decided to initiate a new proceeding against the state Prosecutor’s Office. The FGR stated that this line aims to “determine whether, due to the operation, […] the State Attorney General’s Office […] invaded federal jurisdiction and whether the constitutional design of federal powers has continued to be infringed.”
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Last week, the local press reported a parade of Chihuahua agents who appeared to testify at the state headquarters of the Attorney General’s Office. According to Wednesday’s statement, the investigators conducted a total of 40 interviews and seven suspects did not show up at the facilities. Originally, the federal Public Ministry summoned fifty individuals.
The alleged presence of CIA agents in Mexico has generated a political whirlwind in the country at a time of extreme tension with the United States. The involvement of the Americans was uncovered by chance. After the operation against a drug lab in the municipality of Morelos, two Americans died, along with the director of the State Investigation Agency (AEI) and a worker of the agency, in a traffic accident in the Tarahumara mountains.
The shadow of the CIA returned shortly after. CNN and The New York Times reported on Tuesday that the U.S. agency participated in the detonation of a car bomb outside the Felipe Ángeles International Airport (AIFA), in an operation aimed at eliminating the drug trafficker Francisco Beltrán, El Payín. The news was denied by both Governments. “[It is a] fiction the size of the universe,” censured President Claudia Sheinbaum this Wednesday.
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