REYNOSA, Tamaulipas — The Gulf Cartel had eight armored trucks hidden in an underground bunker-like garage in the outskirts of this border city that sits immediately across the border from South Texas. The seizure took place this weekend following an air and land operation by the Mexican Army in the rural areas near this city, information provided to Breitbart Texas by the Tamaulipas government revealed.
The Mexican military had been carrying out an air surveillance operation when they spotted a series of suspicious air mounds near the rural community of Santa Lucia. The soldiers relayed the information to ground troops who moved into the area to check what the mounds were.
The soldiers ended up discovering the bed of a tractor trailer that had been buried. Inside the trailer bed authorities found two armored vehicles. Authorities searched the area and ended up finding nine other vehicles hidden in the brush.
Of the 11 seized vehicles, eight of them were armored. Five of the vehicles had professionally installed armor while the three others had makeshift armor made up of welded steel plates.
Mexican law enforcement officials consulted by Breitbart Texas confirmed that criminal organizations such as the Gulf Cartel have used armored vehicles in the past during firefights. The area where the trucks were seized is one controlled by Gulf Cartel.
In a similar operation in the rural community of Los Villanueva near the border city of Camargo, Mexican soldiers discovered a narco-bunker with approximately 1,940 pounds of marijuana hidden inside. Camargo is just south of Rio Grande City. The area is considered a major drug and human smuggling area for the Gulf Cartel due to the lack of a border fence making the Rio Grande the only physical barrier for smugglers.
Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas you can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.