Yesterday, La Linea (a sub-gang of the Juarez cartel) used a remotely detonated car bomb against Mexican law enforcement in Ciudad Juarez. This is, as the many news accounts note, the first use of this weapon in the drug war so far. While this might be old hat for a number of bad guys in the Middle East and Central Asia (or, for that matter, Pablo Escobar in the 90s), cartels have not previously used this weapon. Cartel weaponry, both observed and captured, has pretty much been limited to standard infantry weapons.
ELN has been using car bombs in Colombia for a while, but I guess they're more of an insurgent group than cartel (the line gets blurry doesn't it?)
Posted by: russ greene | July 17, 2010 at 03:52 PM
Yeah.
Apparently I might have posted too soon, as Stratfor is saying that the Mexican press misidentified the explosive. Will have to wait and see.
Posted by: A.E. | July 17, 2010 at 06:35 PM