By: Olivia Fang

In the United States, many truck owners enjoy modifying their vehicles, whether that be with the addition of bigger tires, or by sticking car decals onto their doors. These monster trucks are then featured in rallies and truck shows, solely for the enjoyment of viewers and the truck owners themselves. However, Mexican cartels have recently adopted this activity, but in a very different way.

In Mexico, instead of modifications that are purely cosmetic, cartels have opted to add battering rams, steel plates, and turrets to their monster trucks (New York Times). Some of the most powerful drug trafficking organizations, such as the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, use the trucks and other weapons to fight the police. Other cartels, such as the Gulf Cartel and the Northeast Cartel, design their trucks with camouflage, making it difficult to distinguish between monster trucks and police cars (High Times). As Romain Le Cour, a senior expert at the Global Initiative against Transnational Organized Crime, shares with the New York Times, “The monsters are the way to send the message, ‘I’m in charge, and I want everyone to see I’m in charge.’ These are commando-style groups looking to replicate special forces in how they’re armed, how they’re trained, how they look.”

Even though these trucks have been around for over a decade, they have become much more sophisticated in recent years, resembling “a military vehicle” according to Jorge Septién, an expert on ballistics and armaments (New York Times). Since 2019, the Mexican government has destroyed over 260 of these trucks, bringing awareness to the war between the cartels and the government (New York Times). The trucks are made by illegally equipping popular vehicles — such as a Ford F-150 or a Ford Raptor — with weaponry and armor. Even though armoring without authorization can result in up to 15 years in prison, the cartels have yet to stop, with more and more trucks popping up every day.

Although the trucks are very dangerous, they have a few limitations. The various modifications add lots of weight, making the trucks very slow and hard to maneuver (High Times). Nevertheless, the trucks have gone viral on social media, with cartel leaders parading around and showing off the vehicles while rap music plays in the background. As Septién tells the New York Times, “it has to do with a status symbol.”

Sources:

– Mexico’s ‘Monster’ Trucks Show Cartels Taking Drug War to Next Level – The New York Times (nytimes.com)

– Mexican Drug Cartels Are Using Monster Trucks Like Killing Machines | High Times