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#1 Mexico soldiers find narco 'tank' factory

Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 8:46 pm
by frigidmagi
Google
Soldiers on patrol in a Mexican border town discovered a warehouse where armor-plated "tanks" were being prepared for the Gulf drug cartel, a military source said Monday.

The patrol came across the warehouse when they clashed with a group of armed men in the town of Ciudad Camargo, in the far northeastern state of Tamaulipas. Two of the gunmen were killed in a firefight, while two hid inside the warehouse.

"We found two home-made armored trucks in the warehouse, which belongs to the Gulf Cartel," the military source told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity.

The trucks were covered in steel plates one inch (2.5 centimeters) thick, strong enough to "resist the caliber of personal weapons the soldiers use," said the source.

The air-conditioned armored vehicles were equipped with portholes where snipers could open fire from and remain protected.

Soldiers also found two other trucks that were in the process of being armored, as well as 23 powerful big-rig trucks that were apparently going to be armored.

The vehicles, locally known as "monsters," can even resist fire from a heavy .50 caliber machine gun and can only be destroyed with anti-tank weapons, according to the military.

The home-made tanks are used in clashes with other drug cartels as well as to protect drug shipments.

In recent years, soldiers deployed in the northeastern Mexican border region have confiscated 109 home-made armored vehicles -- including one dubbed the "Popemobile" because it carried an armored cabin similar to that used to protect Pope Benedict XVI in foreign trips.

In May, police in the western state of Jalisco carrying out a sweep against the Los Zetas drug cartel discovered an armored vehicle large enough to carry 20 armed men and also equipped with weapons portholes.
Members of the Gulf Cartel and the Zetas are engaged in a bitter fight to control the lucrative smuggling routes in eastern Mexico into the United States.

Separately, investigators in the northern state of Coahuila said Monday that they had discovered 1,314 pieces of human bones that they believe are the remains of victims whose bodies were burned.

Soldiers found the remains in 20 pits near the town of Guerrero along with 60 bullet shells and personal items such as clothing and watches.
Mexico has seen an explosion in drug-related violence which has left some 37,000 dead, according to media reports, since the government launched a military crackdown on organized crime in 2006.
... For a moment I didn't know who I was more pissed at the media or the cartels. Then I realized one group is a bunch of big mouths who don't know shit and the other group is a bunch of murderous poison peddlers who have butchered thousands.

First off, welding 1 inch plates of steel to your truck does not make it a tank. It makes it a barely armored truck with now truly crappy gas mileage(not that I imagine the cartels care). Do not fucking call it a tank, called it an Armored Car. Distinctions are important when describing hostile forces in the field. And yes, they're hostile. You always consider parasites hostile.

Second off, holy fucking crap they're making armored vehicles, bad ones that the Mexican Army would spank but they're not meant for open field battle against said Army. This is getting utterly ridiculous. From what I understand alot of this is being done with the profits from selling marijuana? Just how much is a fucking dime bag going for these days!?!

#2 Re: Mexico soldiers find narco 'tank' factory

Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 9:45 pm
by rhoenix
This is so dumb.

Hey, they want to be prepared for skirmishes and warfare against the police (though not against a proper army)?

Awesome. This is a great argument for legalizing (or decriminalizing) their main source of profit.

I read recently that the cartels make 75% of their profits from pot - one law being passed, and their source of funding gets kneecapped. Let's see them fund submarines and armored cars then.

#3

Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 10:25 pm
by frigidmagi
In northern Mexico the Army is now doing much of the policing as the police has been... I guess I can say destroyed. Remember that town that picked a 22 year old college student for chief of police because no one else wanted the job? Remember how in under a year she had fled to Texas and requested political asylum?

#4

Posted: Wed Jun 08, 2011 10:31 pm
by rhoenix
frigidmagi wrote:Remember that town that picked a 22 year old college student for chief of police because no one else wanted the job? Remember how in under a year she had fled to Texas and requested political asylum?
Yeah... that kinda happened. It really spoke to the desperation of the area at the time that this was presented as a new, problem-solving idea.