The recently discovered ‘narco tank’, appropriately named for its appearance, is an armored assault vehicle. Fitted with gun turrets, inch-thick armor plates, firing ports and bulletproof glass, it is today’s latest military hardware for the drug cartel business.
Drug cartels, criminal organizations promoting and controlling drug trafficking, have caused the ‘war on drugs’, a violent conflict that resulted in the death of over 35,000 Mexicans in the last four years, according to Washing Post.
This week two young men were found hanging from a pedestrian bridge amongst the warring city of Monterrey.
“Organized crime has increased its firepower to move personnel and mount counterattacks against the army,” states Alberto Islas, a security advisor in Mexico.
The Mexican military says the destructive vehicles are “monstrous” and the locals call it “Los Monstrous,” meaning ‘The Monsters.”
On the front page of Reforma, a Mexican daily newspaper, a photograph of this “monster” truck is accompanied by a headline that asks, “And this doesn’t look like war?”
The tanks are evidence to the deadly arms race amongst the drug cartels and their fight against the authorities.