Battles On the Border

(Source)

          The drug wars recently heated up on the Texas-Mexican border. An early report from Borderland Beat related:

Beginning in the evening of Sunday, February 1, reports of blockades and shootouts in northern Tamaulipas has spread online.  It appears that the first reports were of blockades and spikes being dropped on the highway between Anahuac and Valle Hermoso. 

Later that night word spread of a shootout in Nuevo Progreso, followed by the highway between Rio Bravo and Reynosa being completely blocked.  Convoys of vehicles apparently carrying cartel members were also reported in Rio Bravo. 

Around the same time began reports of shootouts in Reynosa.  The largest of the shootouts, occurring near the Las Fuentes traffic circle, began around 4:20 AM on February 2 and lasted over an hour and a half.  Eyewitnesses claimed multiple dead bodies in the area.  As of 7:30 PM Central Time reports of shootings in Reynosa continue.

The conflict is apparently between two factions of the Gulf Cartel--Matamoros and Los Metros of Reynosa--as evidenced  by the movement of vehicles with Escorpión, M3, XX, or 900 marked or painted on the vehicles.

          By February 4, 2015, Breitbart was reporting at least 14 dead, and indicated that "both the U.S. Consulate in Matamoros and that city’s Mayor Leticia Salazar issued warnings to the public giving some of the locations of the fighting and advising residents to stay indoors." By the next day, the US Consulate in Matamoros suspended its operations and advised consulate employees to stay home. Mexican Federal Police have also been involved in shootouts, killing several cartel members and seizing military grade weapons such as automatic rifles and grenade launchers. Clashes continued between police and cartel members this past weekend and earlier this week, bringing the confirmed death toll up to 21. Borderland Beat provides more background on the conflict, as well as some theories as to what set off the violence, here.

         This February 5, 2015, article from Borderland Beat described the seizure of 14 vehicles, 8 of which were being armored. According to the article, the armored vehicles "are utilised [sic] by criminal groups to escort drugs shipments through the Tamaulipas breaches, and avoid robbery of loads by rival groups." The seized vehicles were being taken to a storage facility where approximately 50 previously captured vehicles are being stored. The article also mentioned that the same facility yielded ammunition and radios tuned to military frequencies. (Here is a PDF monograph on Narco armored vehicles, and a 2011 article from In Sight Crime on the vehicles when they first were appearing).