The CIA has escalated secret operations inside Mexico, directly participating in deadly targeted strikes against cartel members as part of an expanded counter-cartel campaign, according to a report Tuesday.

The agency's elite Ground Branch unit has been involved in a series of operations, including a March 28 car bombing on a highway outside Mexico City that killed Francisco "El Payin" Beltran, a mid-level Sinaloa Cartel operative, and his driver, CNN said, citing multiple sources familiar with the matter.

"The lethality of their operations has been seriously ramped up," one source briefed on the operations told CNN. "It's a significant expansion of the kind of thing the CIA has been willing to do inside Mexico."

The expanded campaign followed US President Donald Trump's designation of major Mexican cartels — including Sinaloa and Jalisco — as foreign terrorist organizations.

In a post on the US social media platform X, Mexico’s Security Minister Omar Hamid Garcia Harfuch rejected claims of unilateral lethal operations by foreign agencies, saying all cooperation with the US is conducted through institutional channels and in respect of national sovereignty.

He stressed that operational actions in Mexico are carried out exclusively by Mexican authorities, while bilateral cooperation focuses on intelligence sharing, coordination and formal mechanisms under government oversight.

The CNN report said the CIA declined to comment, while Mexican agencies also did not respond. (AA)