Armored trucks aren’t simply for bank transfers anymore. A form of them has become a tool of drug cartels near the Mexico-Texas border.
Knewz.com has learned about this from The U.S. Sun, which obtained photos of some of them from the Mexican Attorney General’s office.
Some law officers in Mexico call them “monstruos”, as in a Spanish word for monsters. But unlike U.S. “monster trucks” with giant wheels which make arena tours, the cartels trick their rides with solid steel.
Some of the vehicles prepared at secret workshops look like build-it-yourself versions of military tanks.
“The first ones we saw were practically blow-torched and welded in a very shoddy way,” ballistics expert Jorge Septien said.
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Some cartels put their monstruos on social media such as TikTok, as if they’re daring Mexico’s “los federales” to come after them.
“The monsters are the way to send the message, ‘I’m in charge, and I want everyone to see I’m in charge’,” Le Cour explained.
The converted trucks likely are famous names: Ford F-150 or Chevrolet Silverado. They‘re often stolen in the U.S. and driven to Mexico for conversion.
But the people who build monstruos may not be doing it willingly. Security expert Hector Romero Sanchez says some cartels have kidnapped mechanics to do the work.
The vehicles now are the target of seizures as much as cocaine.
Mexico’s military destroyed 14 of them in June in Tamaulipas, which borders the Rio Grande Valley. The total torn apart in the last four years is above 250.
Yet drug cartels such as Jalisco New Generation and the Zetas are trying to look like regional armies.
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But according to EuroNews, experts say that sort of talk lacks credible evidence. European experts say arms deals like that tend to be regional, not occuring across continents.
Another danger for people across Mexico is land mines. One of them blew up in Jalisco state in July, killing four security officials and two civilians.
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