Narco Tanks of Mexico

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Time to do a report on a war theater where heavily armored vehicles shoot it out with each other in city streets: Mexico.

(You were thinking Ukraine? Probably an update on that next week.)

Cartel violence waxes and wanes, and regular readers know that the cartels are heavily armed. Even so, it may come as a shock to many that Mexican drug cartels have their own “tanks” (AKA “Monstruo”), i.e. up-armored civilian vehicles more accurately described as technicals or armored cars.

Mexican police recently captured one in Jalisco.

Mexico’s Guardia Nacional in Jalisco have captured a homemade ‘narco tank’ thought to be used by one of the country’s most powerful drug cartels.

The officials shared the news to Twitter after it was found in the area of Jalisco on 12 April.

According to the Mexican police, the vehicle was harbouring 2,000 rounds of ammunition.

In Texas, we call that “a good start.”

The heavy metal plated vehicle is thought to be owned by the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generacion [CJNG], who operate in the area, as reported by The Star.

Painted green to blend in with surroundings, the tank is heavily armoured, with protective metal casing around the driver’s sider.

Publication Borderland Beat noted that the tank was discovered while being transported inside of a trailer.

The trailer limitation is probably why it seems unusually narrow.

Here’s a video covering various captured cartel narco tanks (though the voice-over isn’t the best).

Here’s a shorter video from several years ago showing various monstruos, mainly from the 2010-2011 timeframe.

This video shows still more footage, including (about 1:50 in) modern CJNG vehicles that not only look more professionally constructed, but have red-blue flashing lights and a cartel logo on the side, which does rather suggest they’re not trying to keep a low profile. Also includes combat footage of CJNG blowing away Northeast Cartel (CDN) rivals through their own gunholes.

Here’s a tweet that shows video of two other captured Nueva Generacion vehicles in 2019:

And here’s one with a handy diagram:

Some enterprising hobby company could probably sell models of these things…

Lawrence Person’s BattleSwarm Blog