Mexican authorities have seized and destroyed 10 cartel monsters (armoured vehicles). The Attorney General’s Office of the State of Tamaulipas announced that these vehicles amount to a total of 365 monsters seized in the state of Tamaulipas from 2018-2023. The cartel monsters began appearing in Mexico in 2010, primarily with the Gulf Cartel and Los Zetas. Since then they have become a prominent part of Mexico’s low-intensity conflict being used in confrontation between cartels and the state.
#FGJT_Informa Con la destrucción de 10 “vehículos monstruo”, se han inutilizado 99 unidades en este año, dando un total de 365 unidades aseguradas, decomisadas y destruidas entre 2018 y 2023. #Reynosa #Matamoros #CiudadVictoria #Tamaulipas pic.twitter.com/nicbYROJH7
— Fiscalía General de Justicia de Tamaulipas (@FGJ_Tam) September 29, 2023
As seen in the images posted from the seizure the monsters vary from pick-up trucks and SUVs with bulletproof armour, to fully-fledged narco-tanks with amateur, large-scale, metal casings. The narco-tanks can be understood to have more attacking-based modifications with a large metal spike at the front of the vehicle.
