Four government investigators, including two from the United States, were killed early Sunday in a tragic car accident in the northern state of Chihuahua, Mexico. The team had been working together to shut down secret drug laboratories, but their journey back from the remote site proved to be fatal. The accident occurred as the convoy of six vehicles from the State Investigation Agency and the State Attorney General’s Office was returning to the state capital.
The group had spent the day investigating clandestine methamphetamine laboratories that were discovered just one day earlier. These labs, which appeared to be linked to the Sinaloa cartel, were found deep in the mountainous terrain of the Sierra Madre Occidental. Per the New York Times, photos released by the Attorney General’s Office show sprawling, improvised setups with piping snaking between cylindrical barrels and tarps to hide the industrial equipment.
