Trump Admin IS running Covert anti-Cartel Op’s IN Mexico

That’s what CNN IS  reporting and the Trump admin is denying  ….

CIA campaign inside Mexico — spearheaded by the agency’s elite and secretive Ground Branch — to dismantle the entrenched cartel networks, those sources as well as two additional people familiar with the campaign told CNN. President Donald Trump has designated several of those groups foreign terrorist organizations and deemed them to be at war with the United States.

Since last year, CIA operatives inside Mexico have directly participated in deadly attacks on several, mostly mid-level cartel members, the sources said. “The lethality of their operations has been seriously ramped up,” said one of the people briefed on the operations. “It’s a significant expansion of the kind of thing the CIA has been willing to do inside Mexico.”

The level of CIA involvement with operations has varied, according to the sources, from more passive intelligence sharing and providing general support to direct participation in assassination operations.

Prior to publication of this story, CNN presented the CIA with details of its reporting. The CIA declined to comment. After publication, CIA spokesperson Liz Lyons released a statement to CNN saying, “This is false and salacious reporting that serves as nothing more than a PR campaign for the cartels and puts American lives at risk,” without specifying what aspect of the reporting is false….

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The strategy, the sources said, is to dismantle entire cartel networks, which involves not only removing those at the very top but also identifying vulnerabilities throughout the organization and systematically targeting lower-tier players who serve as key cogs in the trafficking enterprise….

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The exact number of CIA officers operating inside Mexico has fluctuated over the last several months but has typically been a small force, the sources said.

The agency’s presence in Mexico still has room to grow, two of the sources told CNN. They noted that the CIA has not yet deployed the “full ecosystem” of ground branch assets….

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The first hints of a clandestine CIA presence in Mexico burst into public view late last month, when two US embassy officials who were also CIA operatives were killed in a car accident in the Mexican state of Chihuahua….

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The CIA’s ground presence and operations in Mexico then escalated late last year, after Trump formally updated and expanded the agency’s authorities to conduct lethal targeting and carry out covert action in Latin America, the sources said. Trump indicated in a speech last week that a “land force” was already in place in Mexico to eliminate traffickers but didn’t elaborate on the nature of the force….

More…

Note…

One should NOT be surprised with this CNN expose’….

Trump has telegraphed his wishes to do exactly this in public….