NDrug traffickers who fight over territory to traffic drugs, weapons, money and migrants on the border of the state of Sonora with Arizona, between Mexico and the United Statesthey use ‘monster’ vehicles with homemade armor for their battles with the Army and other criminal groups.
According to the criteria of
Francisco Sergio Méndez, representative of the Attorney General’s Office (FGR) in Sonora, a state in northwestern Mexico, explained to EFE on Saturday that these vehicles have steel plates and improvised armor, which provides protection to the hitmen in armed confrontations.
“They are given enormous security because, as you saw right now in the destruction (that the FGR is carrying out of the confiscated vehicles), they are armored with heavy-caliber sheets, so they are difficult to destroy with a common weapon,” explained the official from the Prosecutor’s Office.
The authorities destroyed the vehicles with heavy machinery mechanical tongs.which have impacts from large-caliber projectiles, graffitied with the nickname of the criminal group to which they belonged and, even, some with the name and logos of the Mexican Navy Secretariat.
What is known about these monster trucks
In this last case, these cars, known as “monsters”, were confiscated in Sonoyta, a municipality on the border between Sonora and Arizona, from ‘Los Pelones’, a gang of hitmen related to ‘La Chapiza’, faction of the Sinaloa Cartel led by the sons of Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán.
“The destruction of monster cars is not intended to let citizens know how they are made, but rather to make them aware of the use that organized crime makes of them to carry out their criminal acts,” Méndez said.
The FGR delegate in Sonora indicated that the Army, The National Guard and the Police Academies have kept some of these vehicles for the training of their cadets.
“These are a significant sample. There are now eight or nine more ‘monsters’ that are in the National Guard, the National Defense Secretariat and the Navy Secretariat so that they can use them in training, (and learn) what the vehicles have inside, how they use them, etc.,” he added.
In northwestern Mexico, Investigative and security agencies have found huge workshops where criminals modify stolen trucks with steel plates to reinforce critical areas of the vehicle against heavy artillery.
Among the altered features are the engine area, the driver’s cabin and an area where artillery is installed to respond to fire in armed combat.
Most of the “monster” vehicles are four-wheel-drive or all-terrain vehicles, used to cross rugged desert areas along the border between Sonora and Arizona, transporting weapons, money, drugs and undocumented migrants for transnational organized crime groups.
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