Results 1 to 1 of 1
Thread Information
Users Browsing this Thread
There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)
-
11-30-2012, 12:56 PM #1
The Tools of Mexico’s Drug Cartels, From Landmines to Monster Trucks
The Tools of Mexico’s Drug Cartels, From Landmines to Monster Trucks
- By Robert Beckhusen
- 11.30.12
- 6:30 AM
- Edit
<< Previous | Next >>
<img alt="The Weapons of Mexico's Drug Cartels" src="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/wp-content/gallery/cartel-weapons/ap576990581060.jpg" />
- <img alt="The Weapons of Mexico's Drug Cartels" src="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/wp-content/gallery/cartel-weapons/thumbs/thumbs_ap576990581060.jpg" width="55" height="55" />
- <img alt="Under the Gun" src="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/wp-content/gallery/cartel-weapons/thumbs/thumbs_ap081107022626.jpg" width="55" height="55" />
- <img alt="Drug Gangs ... With Grenades" src="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/wp-content/gallery/cartel-weapons/thumbs/thumbs_ap081107022774.jpg" width="55" height="55" />
- <img alt="Road Warriors" src="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/wp-content/gallery/cartel-weapons/thumbs/thumbs_convoy.png" width="55" height="55" />
- <img alt="The Monster" src="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/wp-content/gallery/cartel-weapons/thumbs/thumbs_ap101119038699.jpg" width="55" height="55" />
- <img alt="The Incredible Flying Drug Mule" src="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/wp-content/gallery/cartel-weapons/thumbs/thumbs_ultralight.jpg" width="55" height="55" />
- <img alt="Attack of the Bombs" src="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/wp-content/gallery/cartel-weapons/thumbs/thumbs_car_bomb_screencap.png" width="55" height="55" />
- <img alt="Radio Zeta" src="http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/wp-content/gallery/cartel-weapons/thumbs/thumbs_radios.png" width="55" height="55" />
It can be a little deceiving to think of Mexico's drug cartels as simply gangsters.
Instead, they've blurred boundaries between organized crime and quasi-military insurgents, seized swathes of territory and become some of the world's most dangerous criminal gangs. They've also acquired plenty of firepower to back it up.
The Zetas are one of the most disruptive and aggressive of them all. Formed by ex-military men who became armed enforcers for the Gulf Cartel, the Zetas split with their former patrons nearly three years ago and have since become one of Mexico's largest and most dangerous cartels.
While most of those ex-military founding fathers of the cartel are now dead or in prison, they've retained a culture of military loyalties, if not so much the discipline and hierarchy. Or much in the way of taste.
In September, Mexican police arrested Ramiro Pozos, the alleged leader of drug gang "The Resistance" and Zeta ally -- with his gold- and silver-plated AK-47.
Meanwhile, coming up on Saturday, incoming president Enrique Pena Nieto takes office, the first change in the presidency since the drug war exploded across the country more than six years ago.
Aside from reducing the level of violence, one of his priorities will be wrenching back control of cartel territory, and putting it back under the control of the state.
It won't be easy. To enforce their claims, the Zetas — and other criminal groups like the Sinaloa Cartel and the Gulf Cartel — deploy an extensive amount of hardware, nearly rivaling Mexico's own military.
Police forces are often corrupted or threatened into compliance, and almost always outgunned. Here's a look at seven examples why.
http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2012/11/cartel-weapons/NO AMNESTY
Don't reward the criminal actions of millions of illegal aliens by giving them citizenship.
Sign in and post comments here.
Please support our fight against illegal immigration by joining ALIPAC's email alerts here https://eepurl.com/cktGTn
Exclusive – Sen. Marsha Blackburn at Border: ‘Walls Work,’ Need...
03-28-2024, 09:54 PM in illegal immigration News Stories & Reports