A group of Mexican police officers in Ciudad Juarez reportedly chased and shot at a highly decorated U.S. federal agent. Since then, officials on both sides of the border tried to keep the incident under wraps. The agent was not injured.

The episode took place in Ciudad Juarez on March 30, when Oscar Hagelsieb, a leading agent with U.S. Homeland Security Investigations working out of the U.S. consulate in that city, was driving home when local police stopped him, Proceso Magazine reported.

Hagelsieb was driving a BMW X-5 with diplomatic plates when the Ciudad Juarez Municipal Police officers stopped the vehicle, opened the doors, and pointed their weapons at the agent. Fearing a possible kidnapping or execution, Hagelsieb sped off and triggered a high-speed chase that ended at the U.S. consulate. Police fired several rounds at the agent, Proceso reported.

U.S. agencies have not issued any public statements regarding the matter.

Despite the attack against a U.S. agent with diplomatic protection, the Ciudad Juarez municipal government tried to keep it out of the public light during investigation, the Mexican magazine reported. Ciudad Juarez has become a hotspot of violence as La Linea-Juarez and the Sinaloa Cartel fight a turf war.

Ciudad Juarez previously earned the title as the murder capital of the world, but peace returned for a time once the Sinaloa Cartel became dominant. That peace has since ended.

The reported attack against Hagelsieb comes nine years after a group of Los Zetas gunmen killed U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Agent Jaime Zapata and injured fellow Agent Victor Avila along a highway in San Luis Potosi on February 15, 2011.

One year later, on August 29, 2012, a squad of Mexican federales attacked an SUV along the Mexico City-Cuernavaca highway. Inside that SUV were two agents of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.