CHIHUAHUA — Two Central Intelligence Agency officials were killed when their vehicle went off a road and burst into flames after a raid on a clandestine drug laboratory in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico. Four CIA officials were present at the operation, which was conducted alongside Chihuahua state authorities.

As authorities were returning from the raid, the vehicle carrying two of the CIA agents went off the road, plunged hundreds of feet down a mountain, and burst into flames, killing the agents, according to the Chihuahua attorney general. The two other CIA agents, who had been following in a pickup truck, went down the mountain on foot in an attempt to rescue their colleagues.

The agents in Sunday's raid were dressed in Chihuahua State Investigative Agency uniforms to blend in with Mexican officials. The raid was at least the third time this year that CIA operatives joined Chihuahua state authorities in an operation against a drug target.

President Claudia Sheinbaum said her government was never informed that CIA agents would participate in the raid, and that the country's military did not know that individuals participating were neither Mexican citizens nor members of the security agencies of the State of Chihuahua. Members of her Cabinet reached out to the U.S. Embassy for an explanation.

"Any relationship with the United States government, especially issues regarding security, must be channeled through Mexico's federal government, specifically the ministry of foreign affairs," Sheinbaum said. "This is a requirement enshrined in both the Constitution and the law."

Sheinbaum has rejected any intervention by U.S. forces in Mexico, saying it would violate Mexican sovereignty. She said she is considering possible sanctions against the Chihuahua state government. The Mexican Constitution prohibits foreign agents from participating in law enforcement operations.

Chihuahua Attorney General César Jáuregui Moreno offered a different account, saying that U.S. officials did not participate in the raid and that it was carried out by 40 members of the State Investigation Agency and 40 members of the Mexican army. He said the Americans present were instructors from the U.S. Embassy who were in the state giving a course on drone operation and had asked to travel with the convoy of the director of the State Investigative Agency. Jáuregui said they boarded a vehicle at approximately two in the morning and were killed when it went off the road into a ravine.

A CIA spokesperson said the agency could not comment. U.S. agencies, including the CIA, regularly provide intelligence to Mexican police and military forces. President Donald Trump has suggested that U.S. forces could take action against Mexican cartels and has designated various cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.