How ill are the Mexican drug wars getting? The drug cartels are building their own armored trucks.
Rival drug gangs are playing around with really serious military hardware, including .50 caliber machine guns and grenades. At least some of them figured out an armoring solution for the uptick in firepower: armoring. Chop shops add inch-thick steel plates to a standard truck chassis like that of a Ford F-150. At least 100 of the so-cold “El Monstruo” monster trucks have been discovered by Mexican security officials this spring, with the most recent two found this weekend. (Thanks to Justin Elliott for the tip.)
The Mexican media call these Los Monstruos “tanks,” and not without reason. One discovered in April had room inside for 12 gangsters, with “two turrets on top and six lateral firing ports” built in. Others are cruder, resembling up-armored SUVs that can withstand “rounds from M-16 and AK-47s,” according to one report.
Still, our pal Paul McLeary thinks that’s not quite accurate — not least of which because these are wheeled vehicles, not tracked ones. A Monstruo captured last month looks “more like the down-on-its-luck little cousin of an MRAP or MAT-V than an Abrams or a Leopard,” Paul observes.
Either way, expect to see one of these on, say, season six of Breaking Bad.
Posts
