Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth advised Mexican officials that the U.S. would take military action if the country did not address collusion between drug cartels and the Mexican government, The Wall Street Journal reported.

According to sources briefed on the Jan. 31 call, Mexico’s top officials were “shocked and angered” with Hegseth’s implication that the U.S. would use U.S. forces inside of Mexico to address the country’s drug violence.

Hegseth’s alleged threat was made near the same time a U.S. rancher from Brownsville, Texas, was killed driving over an improvised explosive device placed by cartels in Tamaulipas, Mexico, just south of the U.S. border. Antonio Céspedes Saldierna’s son Ramiro, a U.S. Army veteran, said the weapon was more sophisticated than what the Mexican military possesses.

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