EL PASO, Texas (Border Report) — Mexican prosecutors dismantled more than a dozen armored vehicles seized after confrontations with criminal organizations in the border state of Tamaulipas.
Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office announced Sunday that it destroyed 14 vehicles at its officers in Reynosa, Mexico, across the border from McAllen, Texas.
The vehicles were destroyed under the agency’s Assets and Objects of Crime program, which establishes the destruction of objects that are instruments of crime.
The vehicles are commonly referred to as “monsters” and are often used by criminal groups.
These undated photos released by the Mexican Federal Attorney General’s Office show armored vehicles in Reynosa, Tamaulipas state, Mexico. Authorities in northern Mexico said Sunday, June 18, 2023 that they have destroyed 14 homemade armored cars of the kind used by drug cartels to fight land battles. (Mexican Federal Attorney General’s Office) 
These undated photos released by the Mexican Federal Attorney General’s Office show armored vehicles in Reynosa, Tamaulipas state, Mexico. Authorities in northern Mexico said Sunday, June 18, 2023 that they have destroyed 14 homemade armored cars of the kind used by drug cartels to fight land battles. (Mexican Federal Attorney General’s Office) 
These undated photos released by the Mexican Federal Attorney General’s Office show armored vehicles in Reynosa, Tamaulipas state, Mexico. Authorities in northern Mexico said Sunday, June 18, 2023 that they have destroyed 14 homemade armored cars of the kind used by drug cartels to fight land battles. (Mexican Federal Attorney General’s Office)
Mexico’s Defense Department seized most of the vehicles.
Last August, the state of Tamaulipas announced that it had seized 257 such vehicles in the past four years.
During a similar event, the state dismantled 23 “monsters” seized from the Gulf, Zetas, and Northeast cartels.
The tank-like vehicles are mostly ordinary pickups with protective steel sheets, though some are tow trucks or semis with welded steel planks, and cartels rig them with machine-gun ports used to attack rival gangs or law enforcement.