Report: Mexican Army Notes 370 Cartel Attacks with Explosives Since 2018

Mexico’s military documented more than 370 cartel attacks with explosives in the span of President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s term of office despite his promises of security improvements.

Since 2018, Mexico’s Army documented 1,765 explosive devices used in 377 across in 19 states of the 32 states, Contralina notes. Most of the attacks occurred in Michoacan, Chiapas, Jalisco, and Guanajuato.

The report notes that of all devices, only 52 exploded. It remains unclear if the rest were defective or deactivated by responding authorities. The information comes from a Mexican Army report, “Improvised Devices Used by Organized Crime in Mexico,” which is part of the millions of documents stolen by the hacktivist group Guacamaya.

The report was presented during a recent meeting between Mexico’s Army and U.S. Northern Command or USNORTHCOM, Contralinea revealed.

The document describes explosives such as makeshift landmines and bomb-strapped drones. The report claims that domestic news articles have wrongly referred to some buried devices as landmines, explaining they do not fit the military definition.

The report lists explosive types like hand grenades, explosive drones, pipe bombs, and box-type devices holding makeshift shrapnel. Some devices featured remote detonators to slow rival cartels of military forces during pursuits.

The first documented use of makeshift explosives by cartels dates back to 2012. It was not until 2020 that the explosive proliferated among cartels, the report found.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award-winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and senior Breitbart management. You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook. He can be contacted at Iortiz@breitbart.com. 

Brandon Darby is the managing director and editor-in-chief of Breitbart Texas. He co-founded Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project with Ildefonso Ortiz and senior Breitbart management. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook. He can be contacted at bdarby@breitbart.com.

“L.P Contreras” from Breitbart Texas’ Cartel Chronicles project contributed to this report.