back to article Mexico shuts down drug gang's antennas, radios

The Mexican government has shut down a secret mobile network reckoned to be run by one of the country's drug cartels, possibly the ruthless Zetas. Military army troops confiscated 1,400 radios, 2,600 mobile phones, computer equipment, 167 antennas and 166 power supplies including solar panels as part of the operation. The kit …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    iPhone

    I hear you can get the iPhone on the rival Gulf Cartel network though.

  2. Ramiro
    Stop

    Late bills

    If you're late with your bill, you get beheaded and hung from a bridge.

    1. wayne 8
      Pirate

      Exceed data limits and...

      ...you get capped.

  3. Big Al
    Holmes

    Monster trucks!

    The allegedly Zeta armoured Mack dump truck known as “El Monstruo,” found in Tamaulipas state in June 2010, had four cell-signal boosters/repeaters mounted on the mirror brackets - possibly one for each of the four main cellular providers in Mexico. If this was a Zeta network, then, it seems to be a fairly young one...

  4. Jorge the Big One
    Happy

    Missing in the above dark humor (something that comes about as a result of living in a society where gangs become a parallel government, today resulting of course in a new kind of civil war, where the government itself could fall) is the fact that the government did good on this raid.....we just need to see a lot more of these.....especially raids on the arm caches of the gangs.....and their banks. We need to see more of their Mexican assets seized and taken over by the government, their bank accounts in particular.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Won't work

      Attacking the cartels' bank accounts in Mexico is a non-starter: the money isn't in Mexico. The cartels laundered hundreds of billions of dollars through the American bank Wachovia, which received a total of $160 million in fines. Not much of a discouragement when they made billions in wire transfer fees.

      I'm currently living in Bolivia where cocaine is very available and very cheap yet, contrary to popular belief, this hasn't resulted in a country populated with drug-addled zombies.

      Mexico is tearing itself apart fighting the USA's war on drugs. Mexico (indeed the whole of Latin America) should legalise drugs and be done with it.

    2. It wasnt me
      Meh

      Or of course.....

      ..... the US could decriminalise what they're peddling? Not fussed myself, but might save a few lives if they take away their revenue stream the easy way. Just sayin' ......

  5. kain preacher

    Man

    Those early termination fees are a killer .

  6. Microphage

    Effects of government raids?

    > the government did good on this raid.....we just need to see a lot more of these.....especially raids on the arm caches of the gangs.....and their banks. We need to see more of their Mexican assets seized and taken over by the government, their bank accounts in particular ..

    That's something I don't understand, why the US gov expends much energy in chasing down the growing fields in Mexico and Columbia rather than chasing-up the money trail in the US homeland.

    1. Ru
      Big Brother

      Maybe they've already got an idea of where the money trails lead, and felt that perhaps that it Wasn't In The Public Interest (eg, was a wee bit embarassing for all concerned).

      Remember that money in US banks is good for the US economy ;-)

    2. Twits R 4 Twats
      Black Helicopters

      "why the US gov expends much energy in chasing down the growing fields in Mexico and Columbia"

      1) because some powers that be in reality looove the money stream (they only have to pretend they fight the "good fight")

      2) blowing shit up in a country who's sovereignty is compromised is so much easier and cheaper than taking the ugly fight to their own streets

      3) its a perfect war game training ground, and the US looove their war games

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Answer

      Last time a major seizure of money against the the Mexican drug cartel happened Mexico pitched huge fit.

      @Ru your wrong . That money was not being spent in the US as it was being shipped back to Mexico. The feds love asset forfeitures. Its a metric that they love to use in the media.

  7. Robert Carnegie Silver badge

    This comment won't appear

    It goes to show that solar panels get the job done after all. I don't think the drug runners are much interested in greenwashed credentials.

  8. bailey86
    FAIL

    So the Keystone Kops nab some kit...

    One continent demanding drugs - one continent supplying drugs. And a few cops in the middle trying to stop it.

    Unless the cops are all clones of Jean Claude Van Damme and we somehow move to a alternative fantasy reality universe I don't see the drugs trade being stopped by a few bits of kit being nabbed.

    Legalisation is the only way - that way trade disputes get settled in courts rather than by psychopaths.

  9. Johnny Canuck

    Wonder if its based on openbts

  10. poodypoo
    Boffin

    I would've thought listening to their communications would be much more valuable than simply destroying the network, but perhaps Carlos Slim wants to up his subscriber base

  11. earl grey
    Flame

    on the other hand

    if these drugs were legalized, taxed, and distributed through normal channels, they would all be out of work...the big drug companies would put them under for sure.

  12. Herby

    Obligatory crass comment

    "Can you hear me now?"

    For those of you outside the USA, this is the slogan for one of our wireless carriers (Verizon).

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