By: Andy Gao

Monster trucks are known in the United States as vehicles for organized events, but things are very different south of the border in Mexico. Used for illegal activities by cartels, these armored monster trucks have become status symbols and fighting machines.

Modified and armored trucks, known as monster trucks, have become popular over the last decade. These trucks have been modified to blend in with other military vehicles, making them less obvious.

Earlier trucks were “practically blow-torched and welded in a very shoddy way,” stated Jorge Septién, a Mexico City-based expert on ballistics and armaments. Since then, the trucks have spread and become more sophisticated. (The New York Times, 2023)

Armoring a truck takes about 60 to 70 days, and costs roughly 2 million pesos ($117,000). Although armoring a vehicle is a crime, the law has not stopped cartels from producing these vehicles.

Monster vehicles are the newest evolution in blood-soaked drug wars. Different cartels will go to any length “to try to enforce by violent means their dominance against adversary gangs and against authority,’’ Septién added. (The New York Times, 2023)

“The monsters are the way to send the message, ‘I’m in charge, and I want everyone to see I’m in charge,’” said Mr. Le Cour, senior expert at the Switzerland-based Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime. (The New York Times, 2023)

Most monster trucks come equipped with weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades capable of shooting military helicopters. Last month in Jalisco, drones with remote-detonated explosives killed six people.

Recently, these trucks have gained social media attention after Nemesio Oseguera Cervantes, the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel and one of the most wanted men in Mexico and the United States, was seen parading his army on the border of Michoacán and Guanajuato.

The video featured multiple monster trucks, as well as gunmen firing weapons into the air and shouting allegiance to Mr. Oseguera Cervantes.

After this incident, the trucks were part of an attack against police officers and residents in Jalisco.

However, there is hope for the public. Armored trucks are heavy and tend to be slow compared to the average truck. Furthermore, the modifications cause vehicles to be unreliable. “We see them constantly breaking down and being abandoned,” stated Alexei Chévez, a security analyst based in Cuernavaca, Mexico. (The New York Times, 2023)

Many trucks have already been seized. In June, the federal attorney general’s office in the state of Tamaulipas announced that it captured and destroyed 14 monster trucks. This comes after destroying 11 similar vehicles in February. The state prosecutor’s office released a statement citing the “danger to the safety of the community” posed by the monster trucks. (The New York Times, 2023)

Since 2019, more than 260 armored trucks have been destroyed by authorities in Tamaulipas.

The war against drug cartels is not over, and monster trucks are the latest weapons being used to target civilians and the government.

Sources:

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/08/01/world/americas/mexico-cartels-trucks.html