http://www.mcclatchydc.com/2011/06/06/115327/mexican-drug-gangs-building-own.html

Quote :

"Mexican drug gangs building own tanks as war intensifies MEXICO CITY — Mexico's rival crime gangs are in an arms race, and the latest sign of that are the homemade "Mad Max" type heavily armored vehicles they deploy to withstand fierce clashes with each other. The army found two more "narco tanks" over the weekend in Ciudad Camargo in Tamaulipas state along the border with Texas. In earlier discoveries in April and May, armored vehicles found by authorities contained swiveling turrets, snipers' peepholes and gadgets to dump oil and scatter tire-puncturing nails on roadways. The latest discovery showed that the gangs are upping their game. The two armored vehicles were cloaked in inch-thick steel plating. Built on a three-axle truck bed with a heavily armored cabin, the latest "narco tanks" are far larger than previous versions. "You can easily fit 20 armed people in here," an unidentified army officer told El Porvenir TV as he showed the inside of one of the vehicles. The officer said the vehicles could withstand fire from 50-caliber mounted weapons and grenade blasts, and contained a vicious pointed steel battering ram. An army patrol found the tanks after soldiers spotted two armed men along a road on the highway from Nuevo Laredo to Reynosa, just outside Camargo, authorities said. The men ran into a warehouse. Inside, soldiers found the two armored trucks and a workshop to fabricate more. Two more trucks were in the process of being fitted with steel armor. Each of the armored trucks had special synthetic insulation to deaden the sound of incoming rounds and air conditioning for the compartment. Mexican media have dubbed the homemade armored vehicles "Los Monstruos," or The Monsters, while security consultants label the cumbersome vehicles "rhino trucks." None have been used in confrontations with Mexico's army. "It is believed that they are manufactured to try to intimidate rival groups," said an army PowerPoint presentation sent to McClatchy in May after a previous seizure of a homemade tank. On April 16, an army patrol heard blasts around Ciudad Mier, which also is in Tamaulipas state, and discovered the burnt hulk of another "narco tank." That vehicle was painted military green and had two turrets on top and six lateral firing ports. It had capacity for 12 combatants. The vehicle, the army said, was heavy, large and "not very maneuverable in urban areas or on soft or sandy ground." While the army claimed the vehicles are a "desperate attempt" by drug cartels "to protect their people from the occasional casualties from military personnel," the reality appears that they're used for clashes with rival gangs. Los Zetas and the Gulf Cartel, two drug gangs, are locked in brutal warfare in Tamaulipas state for control of a key drug smuggling route into Texas. In mid-May, police found an abandoned "Monstruo" on a highway near Mezquitic in Jalisco state. Five dead bodies lay nearby. The slope-sided, armored vehicle was built on the chassis of a Ford 2011 F-Series Super Duty pickup truck. It also contained a swiveling pop-up turret. The "narco tanks" are only the latest of a constant effort by drug gangs in Colombia and Mexico to improve their arsenals and find better smuggling methods. In recent years, cartels have built homemade submarines to bring cocaine north from the Andean region. Some of these submarines are over 100-feet long, can travel as deep as 25 feet below the ocean's surface and carry loads of up to eight tons of narcotics."

6/7/2011 9:21:21 AM

damn!

6/7/2011 9:24:37 AM

Investing in infrastructure. Drug cartels are are smarter then the government.

6/7/2011 9:27:14 AM

Quote :

"In recent years, cartels have built homemade submarines to bring cocaine north from the Andean region."

Quote :

"Authorities in Awe of Drug Runners' Jungle-Built, Kevlar-Coated Supersubs"

http://www.wired.com/magazine/2011/03/ff_drugsub/all/1

6/7/2011 9:33:25 AM

Quote :

""You can easily fit 20 armed people in here,""

Quote :

"Mexican Drug War goes Mad Max "

6/7/2011 9:42:13 AM

BORDERLANDS

6/7/2011 9:48:00 AM

The Coast Guard has been intercepting these subs for a while now....

6/7/2011 9:48:52 AM

^^ All the police crowded down there for the On a Boat achievement.

[Edited on June 7, 2011 at 9:50 AM. Reason : needs moar ^]

6/7/2011 9:49:47 AM

6/7/2011 9:53:45 AM

Quote :

"peepholes"

6/7/2011 10:26:59 AM

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"The Coast Guard has been intercepting these subs for a while now...."

Yes, but they've only recently become the type of subs we normally think of that are self powered and can truly dive. In the past they were pretty un-advanced from a technological standpoint. They usually towed them a few hundred feet back from a fishing vessel and most of them did not really "submerge" so much as float really low in the water to be less visible on radar. They're definitely pumping some serious money in and bringing in actual engineers to design/build these newer subs.

[Edited on June 7, 2011 at 10:39 AM. Reason : l]

6/7/2011 10:38:30 AM

/message_topic.aspx?topic=613322

6/7/2011 11:19:28 AM

^^I was going to say that based on those pictures it looks like they got the marine part correct, the sub part... not so much.

6/7/2011 11:31:38 AM

wonder how well they'd hold up against frag rounds from an AA-12.

6/7/2011 12:31:39 PM

holy shnikes

you need like 50ft of clearance on the right of you

6/7/2011 3:08:28 PM

good thing our military is so heavily devoted to being in the Middle East

6/7/2011 3:12:02 PM

the aa-12 won't do shit to armored anything man... its a shotgun..


they didn't mention .50 AE rounds though... that secondary projectile is a bitch to stop.

6/7/2011 3:23:58 PM

^ goto about 4:30 where they talk about the explosive rounds. I doubt mexican made armor will stop that.

6/7/2011 3:33:06 PM

lol damn i've seen that round before but it was used in this


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/XM25_Individual_Airburst_Weapon_System

not a shot gun round.

6/7/2011 3:44:45 PM

IED would make easy work of those things.

6/7/2011 4:34:11 PM

Quote :

"In earlier discoveries in April and May, armored vehicles...[had] gadgets to dump oil and scatter tire-puncturing nails on roadways."

Made me think of Batman, and not the good kind. The cheesy Adam West Batman.

6/7/2011 5:29:09 PM

^made me think of Spy Hunter

6/7/2011 5:35:22 PM

WE GO IN, WE KILLLLLL

Soon my dog of war

6/7/2011 5:37:12 PM