Narco Engineering~Vehicles Modified for Drug Cartel Wars

Narco Engineering

Tuesday, June 19, 2012 | Borderland Beat ReporterArm Chair

Borderland Beat

Organized crime is engineering increasingly sophisticated equipment and armaments, their ability to use improvisation is impressive, for example, the unusual armored vehicles that are used to protect drug shipments. With crude materials such as steel plates and railway tracks, "narco engineering" has created real monsters, unbeatable with conventional weapons. Their place of origin is from Tamaulipas, however its use appears to extend to other entities, such as Zacatecas and Sinaloa.

Juan Alberto Cedillo

June 14, 2012

REYNOSA, TAMPS. (Proceso)-monsters, armored vehicles crafted by the Gulf Cartel, were assembled in a clandestine workshop of Camargo, a municipality of Tamaulipas in an area known as "Frontera Chica.” In June 2011, troops of the 8th military zone based in Reynosa, found two finished monsters and other 23 others in waiting to be completed.

These units are result of the "Militarization of organized crime driven by Los Zetas", says proceso's Guadalupe Contreras-Correa, a researcher at the University of Texas at Brownsville, and explains: "The Zetas were formed from elements of the Mexican army’s elite groups and were trained by foreign advisors in highly specialized weapons handling and counter-insurgency tactics."

Contreras-Correa adds that one effect of the militarization introduced by Los Zetas involved the professional tactics to eliminate the adversary: the use of non-conventional attack tactics, as the use of IED’s and fragmentation grenades, mass kidnappings and roadblocks or "narcobloqueos." Furthermore, they introduced heavy weapons and armored vehicles, such as those made by the same group and the Gulf Cartel.

All types of vehicles were modified in the underground workshop of Camargo, with the aim to turn them into monsters: big rigs, dump trucks, flatbed trucks and even tractors.

An officer of the eighth military zone explains that the criminals changed the the suspension so that it could support up to 30 tons of weight. They would as the Officer indicated, cover the engine, the cabin and the back with at least one inch thick steel plates. The original supports were replaced by pieces of railroad rails.

The military emphasizes that the armor of these “monsters” can withstand attacks with AK47 and AR15 assault rifles and even .50 caliber and 40 mm grenades.

They designed several "models;" from one resembling the Popemobile, a light vehicle whose armored cabin could only have housed a couple of shooters, to trucks with capacity to carry 20 snipers. The inner walls of these vehicles were coated with polyurethane to dampen the noise produced from assault rifles.

During 2010, it was common to see monsters circulating through the traditional trafficking routes that branch from the municipality of San Fernando. This town is located in the Gulf of Mexico, 120 kilometers south of the border with United States.

"The monsters are used only to monitor and protect the transfer of drugs carried out in rural areas of Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon, as protection from rival groups", the military emphasizes, and stresses that until now the narcos have not used such vehicles to combat the army or the Federal forces.

The existence of monsters dates from the first months of 2010, after the split between the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas, former armed branch of that organization.

"Rupture had been brewing for some time, since Los Zetas expanded so rapidly. As they controlled important squares, which made the leadership of Los Zetas decide that it was time for more independence from their former partners," says researcher Guadalupe Contreras-Correa.

The offical split occurred after that, in February 2010, when the Concord 3, a sicario of Los Zetas in Reynosa, was executed by Metro 3, who worked for Los Zetas counterpart, the Gulf Cartel.

In March of that same year a bloody dispute for control of squares and territories in the area began, especially in the region known as the " Frontera Chica." This included San Fernando, northern Veracruz, Tampico and Tamaulipas.

As both sides knew their places and methods of operation, the dispute reached the proportions of a civil war. Small armies of gunmen clashed in bloody battles in cities of Mier, Camargo, Guerrero, Miguel Alemán, and San Fernando, and these were only the towns the press coverered.

Because of this it became important to protect drug shipments from looters. Out of this dilemma came the idea to create the monsters, vehicles that we began to see in other regions of the country dominated by organized crime, such as in the States of Zacatecas and Sinaloa.
The only way to destroy the monsters is to attack them with 20 mm anti-tank grenades, adds military source.

In the past three years the military zone VIII has seized in Tamaulipas, more than 120 armored vehicles. These include six that are considered "real monsters," because they weigh more than 30 tons and can accommodate more than 20 gunmen.