Former Chihuahua prosecutor arrested over CIA-linked drug raid

César Jáuregui Moreno, the former prosecutor of Chihuahua, was arrested on Saturday, October 17, on charges of illegal exercise of public service and coalition. The arrest relates to an anti-drug operation carried out between April 17 and 19, 2026, near El Pinal in the municipality of Morelos.

The operation targeted six clandestine laboratories in the Sierra Tarahumara. It ended in an accident that killed two state agents and two agents from the Central Investigation Agency (CIA).

“Unfortunately, the former prosecutor acted on his own, along with other people within the State Attorney General's Office, and that cannot be forgiven.”

Jáuregui resigned as state prosecutor on April 27 with an irrevocable character, a decision accepted by Governor María Eugenia Campos Galván. He later appeared as a witness before the Attorney General's Office (FGR) in Ciudad Juárez.

The FGR obtained a fast-track arrest warrant for Jáuregui and another official, Guillermo Arturo Zuany Portillo, who remains a fugitive. Judge Mariana Vieyra Valdés granted the order yesterday.

Governor Campos said she was not informed about the presence of US personnel during the operation. She stated that the former prosecutor acted on his own and that such behavior cannot be forgiven.

The investigation file is held by both the state prosecutor's office and the FGR. The governor said it is up to the National Action Party (PAN) to decide whether Jáuregui can run for mayor of Chihuahua.