Mexican police seize armored F-350 'narco tank' with machine gun turret
 

<p>Filed under: <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/etc/" rel="tag">Etc.</a>, <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/government-legal/" rel="tag">Government/Legal</a>, <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/category/safety/" rel="tag">Safety</a></p><a href="http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2011/05/narco-tank-vehicles-cartels-drug-war-mexico.html"><img alt="Ford F-150 "The Z Monster Narcotank"" src="http://www.blogcdn.com/www.autoblog.com/media/2011/06/z-monster-narcotank.jpg" style="border-style: solid; border-width: 0px; margin: 4px 0px;" /></a><br />
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If you saw this gussied-up <a href="http://www.autoblog.com/make/ford">Ford</a> F-350 in the U.S., you'd probably look around for a film set and production signs for <em>Death Race 4000</em> - or at least the camera crew from <em>Storm Chasers</em>. South of the border, however, these "narco tanks" aren't film fantasies - they're wheeled dreadnoughts built for cartels to do battle with other cartels and the Mexican government.<br />
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This one, said to be called "Z Monster," was reportedly confiscated by Mexican police in Jalisco after a weekend of skirmishes with a drug cartel. Up front is a battering ram, and within its ubiquitous armor plating, it has gun ports, a rotating machine-gun turret and room for 20 men. There's a barely underground trade in <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oB893ciG6sw&featu re=youtu.be">these A-Team contraptions</a> that have purposes from mere deception to big-bore devastation, probably none as serious as the Kenworth dump truck known as "<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jqTdAd3hBRw&featu re=player_embedded">El Monstro 2010</a>" and the tank known as "<a href="http://gizmodo.com/5800524/mexican-drug-cartel-builds-its-own-tank">El Monstruo 2011</a>." But the way things are going in Mexico's five-year drug war, antes will be upped soon enough.<p style="padding:5px;backgr ound:#ddd;border:1px solid #ccc;clear:both;"><a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2011/05/28/mexican-police-seize-armored-f-350-narco-tank-with-machine-gun/">Mexican police seize armored F-350 'narco tank' with machine gun turret</a> originally appeared on <a href="http://www.autoblog.com">Autoblo g</a> on Sat, 28 May 2011 17:20:00 EST. Please see our <a href="http://www.weblogsinc.com/feed-terms/">terms for use of feeds</a>.</p><h6 style="clear: both; padding: 8px 0 0 0; height: 2px; font-size: 1px; border: 0; margin: 0; padding: 0;"></h6><a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2011/05/28/mexican-police-seize-armored-f-350-narco-tank-with-machine-gun/" rel="bookmark" title="Permanent link to this entry">Permalink</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.autoblog.com/forward/19952489/" title="Send this entry to a friend via email">Email this</a>&nbsp;|&nbsp;<a href="http://www.autoblog.com/2011/05/28/mexican-police-seize-armored-f-350-narco-tank-with-machine-gun/#comments" title="View reader comments on this entry">Comments</a>

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