Drug cartel “narco tanks”

Business Insider is reporting on the phenomena of homemade armored cars built by Mexican drug cartels.  Looking a bit like something out of a Mad Max movie or perhaps an old episode of the A-Team, these “narco tanks” are known in Spanish as “monstruo.”  In 2011 the Mexican miitary seized a garage in Tamaulipas used to construct these vehicles.  The Mexican military’s subsequent crack-down on the creation of these improvised AFV’s forced the practice to go underground. Narco tanks are still produced, but today’s versions have their armored paneling on the inside so as to not draw unwanted attention from rival cartels and the military.  Improvised armored vehicles are certainly not limited to Mexico.  Homemade “tanks” have been built by many countries, most recently in the middle east where they have been used by Kurdish forces and also in Syria.  View gallery here.