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Mexican officials seize ‘narcotank’


Authorities in Jalisco, Mexico, recently seized this tricked-out 2011 Ford F-350 Super Duty truck, above, that had been transformed by drug gang members into an obviously DIY armored vehicle. The steel-plated "Z Monster," as the truck was called, could fit 20 men and was outfitted with a rotating machine gun turret.

Drug gangs are crafting armored "narcotanks" in order to battle the Mexican military--and each other. Security forces complain they're battling gangs that are better armed than they are. In Colombia, gangs have been caught using homemade submarines, and other cartels use ultra-light airplanes to transport drugs to the United States without grabbing the attention of the Border Patrol. The L.A. Times' Daniel Hernandez reports that The Zetas and Gulf cartels wear military-style uniforms, making them "indistinguishable from actual soldiers" and confusing the locals.

Variations on the Z Monster--trucks with bulletproof glass, steel plates, battering rams and gun turrets--are increasingly the gangmobiles of choice, as this video (in Spanish) shows. One vehicle profiled in the video shows a special button that releases a cache of nails in the truck's path, leaving any followers with flat tires. Earlier this month, police seized another armored vehicle nicknamed "El Monstruo," which BusinessInsider reported could carry 12 people and go nearly 70 miles per hour.

(Hector Guerrero/AFP/Getty Images)http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theloo...eize-narcotank

Extra style points for the frenetic, disco/action drumbeat soundtrack.