Mexican Drug Cartels' New Weapon In Border War – The Car Bomb

Aug. 12, 2010 — -- As violence along the U.S.-Mexico border escalates, Mexican drug cartels have found a new and lethal weapon, borrowed from the bloody annals of Mideast terror – the car bomb. This summer, the Juarez drug cartel used a remote-controlled car bomb to kill four and wound 20 in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico's murder capital, creating a massive blast within walking distance of downtown El Paso, Texas, and a second car bomb exploded outside a police station in Ciudad Victoria.

An internal Department of Homeland Security document describes the car bomb used in Ciudad Juarez as the latest tactic that the armed wing of the Juarez cartel, La Linea, has lifted from Islamic jihadis. "La Linea," says the document, "has used terror tactics generally seen in Iraq and Afghanistan – mass video-recorded decapitations, targeting of civilians, and most recently the July 15 VBIED [car bomb] – to instill fear among rivals, law enforcement and the general public."

The Ciudad Juarez car bomb was particularly cruel, and effective, because the cartel used a wounded man as bait to lure first responders to the scene before detonating the device, apparently via cell phone. The blast killed the wounded man, a police officer, a doctor and a bystander.

According to the DHS report, "First responders were lured into the kill zone with an emergency call stating a wounded police officer was at a specific location. Post event analysis revealed the attackers had dressed a wounded civilian in a municipal police officer uniform."

The cartel was targeting law enforcement because of the arrest of a high-ranking La Linea member, Jesus Armando Acosta Guerrero, AKA El 35, and because of a belief that Mexican officials were favoring, and aiding, the rival Sinaloa drug cartel.

More than 20 pounds of explosives were used in the blast. At the scene Mexican officials found the remains of a green Ford Focus and a briefcase, parts of a bomb that had apparently been detonated by remote control, and three-inch dry-wall screws, which had been packed into the bomb to inflict maximum damage on human targets. Packaging from a chemical explosive was found on a nearby rooftop.