In the municipality of Morelos, Chihuahua, new details have emerged regarding the tactical backgrounds of 36-year-old Richard Leiter Johnston III and 44-year-old John Dudley Black—the two U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) agents who died on April 19, 2026, after their vehicle plunged off a ravine and caught fire on a dirt road leading to the community of Polanco.
Also killed in the crash were Pedro Román Oseguera Cervantes, who served as director of the State Investigation Agency (AEI) in Chihuahua, and his security detail, Manuel Genaro Méndez Montes.
The group was returning from an operational deployment focused on the destruction of clandestine laboratories used for the production of synthetic drugs in the locality of El Pinal.
According to records from the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) and reports on their military careers, both U.S. citizens possessed operational experience abroad:
Richard Leiter Johnston III, 36—a 2013 graduate of the University of Virginia—served as a platoon leader in the 25th Infantry Division during Operation Freedom’s Sentinel in Afghanistan in 2016. He later joined Special Forces Operational Detachment-Alpha (SFOD-A) 1333 (Green Berets), with a deployment to the Philippines, and was fluent in both Mandarin and Spanish.
John Dudley Black, 44—a native of San Francisco, California, and a 2001 graduate of Gonzaga Preparatory School—served in the United States Marine Corps, where he acted as an aide-de-camp to the commanding general of the 1st Marine Division during missions in Afghanistan. Two gray Volkswagen Jetta vehicles, tracked via GPS, were linked to lease agreements (numbers 81957 and 85272) in the names of the foreign nationals—individuals who were also recorded as having made extended visits to the State Public Security Complex in the state capital.
A hotel room—number 2312—at a Holiday Inn establishment was registered under the name of 44-year-old John Dudley Black.
The FGR (Attorney General’s Office) maintains that neither 36-year-old Richard Leiter Johnston III nor 44-year-old John Dudley Black possessed the formal accreditation or the diplomatic permits required to operate within Mexican territory.
Following the submission of over 140 pieces of evidence in the criminal proceedings against the former prosecutor of Chihuahua, César Gustavo Jáuregui Moreno, and the former prosecutor specializing in Strategic Operations, Guillermo Arturo Zuany Portillo, federal authorities have formally brought charges of treason against the state. This charge stems from the failure to follow the protocols mandated by Articles 68 and 69 of the National Security Law.
