CNN is reporting the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency has escalated its secret war on drug cartels with deadly operations inside Mexico, spearheaded by the CIA’s elite and secretive Ground Branch. Since Donald Trump retook the White House last year and designated several cartels as foreign terrorist organizations, CIA operatives inside Mexico have reportedly participated directly in targeted assassinations on several, mostly mid-level cartel members. That includes a car bombing earlier this year on a busy highway outside Mexico City that killed alleged Sinaloa cartel member Francisco Beltrán and his driver. CNN’s disclosure of the CIA’s Mexico operations comes after two CIA operatives and two Mexican law enforcement officers were killed in a car accident in the state of Chihuahua last month. The current U.S. ambassador to Mexico, Ronald Johnson, is a former U.S. Army Green Beret and veteran CIA officer.