MEXICO CITY—Mexican armed forces destroyed 14 homemade armored cars built by local criminal gangs, authorities said on Sunday.
The vehicles, known as “monstruos” or “monsters” in English, were seized in the northeastern border state of Tamaulipas where organized crime groups often engage in open warfare with each other and the authorities.
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Mexico’s attorney general’s office released photos of some of the vehicles, showing one painted in camouflage with a large improvised battering ram attached to the front. Others had gun turrets and holes where the vehicles’ operators could stick their weapons out to fire at their enemies. All the vehicles were reinforced with armor intended to withstand bullets and explosives.
Authorities did not announce where or when the vehicles were seized, nor who built and used the armored cars, but said they were connected to 12 different police investigations. Tamaulipas is home to several warring criminal groups, including rival factions of the Gulf Cartel and offshoots of the splintered Zetas cartel, principally the Northeastern Cartel. Other groups like the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (CJNG) and Sinaloa Cartel have a presence in the region as well.
The vehicles were destroyed in the border city of Reynosa, just south of McAllen, Texas. In April, Tamaulipas authorities destroyed nine other similarly armed vehicles. In February, state authorities wrecked an additional 11 confiscated homemade narco tanks.
The practice of Mexican criminal gangs building their own armored vehicles has proliferated in recent years. The use of monstruos is especially prominent in Tamaulipas, as well as the western states of Michoacan and Jalisco.
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In July 2020, the CJNG released a video of dozens of its members lined up in front of a long caravan of camouflaged armored cars in an apparent attempt to intimidate its rivals and the government with the blatant display of its arsenal and manpower.