Drug Cartels Building DIY Tanks

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Drug Cartels Building DIY Tanks

From BBC News:

Mexican soldiers have destroyed four “narco-tanks”, lorries fitted with steel armour thought to have been made for the Gulf drug cartel. The vehicles were seized in a garage in Camargo, in the northeastern state of Tamaulipas. Authorities said the cartel used the tanks, fitted with air-conditioning and steel plates, to patrol its smuggling routes and transport drugs to the US. Two of the tanks had already been fitted with armour 2.5cm (1in) thick. Two more lorries were in the process of being fitted with steel plates, and 23 articulated lorries were still awaiting modification.

[Thanks, James!]

More:
Smugglers caught with weed-flinging catapult

34 thoughts on “Drug Cartels Building DIY Tanks

  1. RapidEye says:

    Cool, now the local AZ and TX Sheriff Offices will have justification for those new Warthogs and Apaches they always wanted!

  2. RapidEye says:

    Cool, now the local AZ and TX Sheriff Offices will have justification for those new Warthogs and Apaches they always wanted!

  3. Daniel Flugt says:

    I’m sorry, but it’s not a tank if it hasn’t got a gun; It’s an armoured lorry.

  4. Daniel Flugt says:

    I’m sorry, but it’s not a tank if it hasn’t got a gun; It’s an armoured lorry.

    1. Sean Michael Ragan says:

       This is a good point.  More like a DIY APC.

    2. Sean Michael Ragan says:

       This is a good point.  More like a DIY APC.

  5. Anonymous says:

    what? you’ve got a knife? well I have a gun…
    You have a gun? I’ve got a machine gun…
    oh yeah, well I’ve got a bazooka…
    I’ve got a catapult..
    I’ve got a tank…
    I’ve got a submarine…

    Will it ever end? Nukes inevitable :(

  6. Anonymous says:

    what? you’ve got a knife? well I have a gun…
    You have a gun? I’ve got a machine gun…
    oh yeah, well I’ve got a bazooka…
    I’ve got a catapult..
    I’ve got a tank…
    I’ve got a submarine…

    Will it ever end? Nukes inevitable :(

  7. Anonymous says:

    what? you’ve got a knife? well I have a gun…
    You have a gun? I’ve got a machine gun…
    oh yeah, well I’ve got a bazooka…
    I’ve got a catapult..
    I’ve got a tank…
    I’ve got a submarine…

    Will it ever end? Nukes inevitable :(

  8. Anonymous says:

    what? you’ve got a knife? well I have a gun…
    You have a gun? I’ve got a machine gun…
    oh yeah, well I’ve got a bazooka…
    I’ve got a catapult..
    I’ve got a tank…
    I’ve got a submarine…

    Will it ever end? Nukes inevitable :(

  9. Anonymous says:

    what? you’ve got a knife? well I have a gun…
    You have a gun? I’ve got a machine gun…
    oh yeah, well I’ve got a bazooka…
    I’ve got a catapult..
    I’ve got a tank…
    I’ve got a submarine…

    Will it ever end? Nukes inevitable :(

  10. Anonymous says:

    what? you’ve got a knife? well I have a gun…
    You have a gun? I’ve got a machine gun…
    oh yeah, well I’ve got a bazooka…
    I’ve got a catapult..
    I’ve got a tank…
    I’ve got a submarine…

    Will it ever end? Nukes inevitable :(

  11. Kenn Mileski says:

    Wow, it looks very inconspicious.  Nobody would ever notice any thing odd about these!

  12. Juan Cubillo says:

    It’s like the anti-pope movil!

  13. Halfvast Conspirator says:

    The narcodudes need to do something about those tires.  If that thing is carrying an inch of sheet metal all around, they must be under some serious load, and one nail, or a bullet, or an RPG would immobilize it right quick.

  14. Jacob Shaffer says:

    Looks like they were trying to copy the new-ish MRAP vehicle used in Iraq and Afghanistan.

  15. Jacob Shaffer says:

    Looks like they were trying to copy the new-ish MRAP vehicle used in Iraq and Afghanistan.

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I am descended from 5,000 generations of tool-using primates. Also, I went to college and stuff. I am a long-time contributor to MAKE magazine and makezine.com. My work has also appeared in ReadyMade, c't – Magazin für Computertechnik, and The Wall Street Journal.

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