Outside the Beltway

The Mexican Cartel’s “Narco-Tanks”

Steven L. Taylor · Tuesday, June 7, 2011 · 4 comments

Via the Miami Herald: Drug gangs using homemade “narco-tanks”

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.

Also from the BBC: Mexican army destroys drug cartel ‘narco-tanks’

FILED UNDER: Latin America, World Politics, BBC, television

About Steven L. Taylor

Steven L. Taylor is a Professor of Political Science and a College of Arts and Sciences Dean. His main areas of expertise include parties, elections, and the institutional design of democracies. His most recent book is the co-authored A Different Democracy: American Government in a 31-Country Perspective. He earned his Ph.D. from the University of Texas and his BA from the University of California, Irvine. He has been blogging since 2003 (originally at the now defunct Poliblog). Follow Steven on Twitter

Comments

OzarkHillbilly (used to be tom p) says:

Tuesday, 7 June 2011 at 11:15

If I lived in LA I’d get one just for rush hour.
Southern Hoosier says:

Tuesday, 7 June 2011 at 13:00

“You can easily fit 20 armed people in here,”

Technically it is an APC, Armored Personnel Carrier.

the vehicles could withstand fire from 50-caliber mounted weapons and grenade blasts,

I doubt if the tires could, since they are exposed.

The two armored vehicles were cloaked in inch-thick steel plating.

Heavy, poor acceleration, poor handling, poor stopping, and poor off road capabilities. A RPG or an IED would take it out.
Scott O. says:

Tuesday, 7 June 2011 at 13:49

SH, you should offer your services as an adviser.

National Geographic had an interesting program a while back, “Cocaine Submarines”. Really just low profile boats to make them less visible avoid radar.

http://topdocumentaryfilms.com/cocaine-submarines/

http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&safe=off&biw=1512&bih=873&gbv=2&tbm=isch&btnG=Search&oq=+drug+subs&aq=f&aqi=g3g-m1&q=drug%20subs
Southern Hoosier says:

Tuesday, 7 June 2011 at 14:22

Scott O. says: Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 13:49

SH, you should offer your services as an adviser.

No thanks I hear they have a lousy retirement plan. BANG!

Just think if all their ingenuity and hard work went into honest work. They could make fortune and live long enough to enjoy it.

Drug traffickers have never been faulted for lack of ingenuity. They have dug and ventilated thousands of feet of underground tunnel from Mexico to California, refashioned light aircraft that release packages of drugs into remote areas, and invented homemade “semi-submersibles” that cruise the Pacific Coast of South America northward.

http://goo.gl/LDQfT