The 2015 El Paso border crossing shootout occurred in 2015 when a US-Mexican operation to capture Sonora Cartel lieutenant Guillermo Diaz resulted in a Sonora Cartel ambush on the American side of the El Paso-Ciudad Juarez border.
Following the discovery of 42 bodies in a Chandler, Arizona home used by the cartel as a safehouse, the FBI and CIA created a joint task force overseen by CIA officer Matt Graver and assassin Alejandro Gillick, with the objective of responding to escalating cartel activity on the US-Mexico border. Their objective was to flush out and apprehend Sonora lieutenant Manuel Diaz, and their first step was to extradite Diaz's brother Guillermo, who was sheltering in Ciudad Juarez. A team of Delta Force operators, Deputy US Marshals, CIA personnel, and FBI SWAT departed Luke Air Force Base and crossed the border into Mexico, where they were joined by Mexican Federal Police. The convoy met little resistance while traveling into Ciudad Juarez, although they drove past several hanging, mutilated bodies put on display by the cartel. Diaz was apprehended without incident, although the cartel secretly dispatched sicarios to rescue him once he crossed the border.
The convoy was allowed to recross the American border without stopping, although they soon found themselves in a traffic jam. Two cars full of armed sicarios pulled up in nearby lanes, causing the task force to ready for a shootout if the occupants of the cars left their vehicles. When the narcos began to open their doors, the Americans responded by exiting their vehicles and attempting to apprehend them. The narcos fired the first shots, leading to the Americans spraying the hitmen's vehicles and killing all of them. One corrupt Mexican Federal Police officer attempted to kill FBI operative Kate Macer, but he was shot dead before he could do so. Diaz was promptly taken to Luke AFB, where he was tortured into revealing the existence of cross-border smuggling tunnels near Nogales, Sonora.
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