Mexico shuts down drug gang's antennas, radios
Army says deadly Las Zetas used some of the kit to track the military
Posted in Security, 5th December 2011 15:37 GMT
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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 is thought to have powered an encrypted mobile phone network that spanned four border states in northern Mexico.
The Mexican Defence department said that the network had been used by drug runners to communicate among themselves and to track military movements. The Zetas, who are fighting a ruthless turf war against their former bosses in the Gulf Cartel, are big players in all four states covered by the covert network (Tamaulipas, Nuevo Leon, Coahuila and San Luis Potosi).
Last summer the Mexican navy dismantled a communications network linked to the Zetas in the Gulf state of Veracruz, AP reports. ®
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