Nuevo Laredo Cartel Battle, 16 July 2010

[VMI77]

The slide show here has some interesting analysis and a lot of food for thought for those interested in tactical considerations. WARNING: a few of the photos are pretty gruesome.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/35201752/Nuev ... e7-16-2010" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

UPDATE:

After seeing the link provided by PUCKER and taking a closer look at the bus (photo appears to be taken in Central Mexico, not Nuevo Laredo) I now believe this supposed gun battle is bogus --another internet hoax.

[MadMonkey]

You know... that is quite disturbing. Not the gore (the internet has desensitized me to that ) but the fact that many of us would consider a cartel force to be little more than a US-style street gang with little equipment and weapons that they were lucky to get their hands on.

That slideshow shows that those guys are extremely serious. If anything that makes me want to head out and train hard right now, even though I'm at work I don't doubt that this sort of thing is possible on this side of the border.

[Texas Size 11]

A guy I work with keeps up with the cartels and their carnage - it's some kind of hobby for him. He knows quite a bit about them from studying them for the past few years (well, at least by my standards). These guys are butchers...

[PUCKER]

Thank you for sharing, very interesting, if not disturbing.

Thoughts:

-are the weapons semi-auto or full-auto? Curious as to the country of origin as well.

-anyone recognize the red Suburban in the bottom right of the vehicle montage page (slide 20)? Looks strikingly similar to a pic where the story goes that folks were near a hot range and got fired upon by a fighter jet....matter of fact, it looks IDENTICAL to me....something doesn't add up....note that the below photo was posted on the below page on 6/6/2008, according to the webpage, and this cartel firepage *just* happened.

story here:
http://www.strategypage.com/military_ph ... 14332.aspx" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

[Pawpaw]

Good catch, Pucker!

When I saw that pic in the slideshow, I did wonder why the holes were so big but thought nothing more about it.

Looks like someone was "enhancing" the facts, just a little.

[VMI77]

-anyone recognize the red Suburban in the bottom right of the vehicle montage page (slide 20)? Looks strikingly similar to a pic where the story goes that folks were near a hot range and got fired upon by a fighter jet....matter of fact, it looks IDENTICAL to me....something doesn't add up....note that the below photo was posted on the below page on 6/6/2008, according to the webpage, and this cartel firepage *just* happened.

I wondered about the red Suburban damage when I looked at the slide show. I have to say that in my mind, seeing that same image at the link you provided casts doubt on the credibility of the entire slide show. I went back through it and took a closer look at the bus. The windshield says Aquiles Serdán "Centro Transito," La Fe Soriana, which suggests the photo was taken in Central Mexico. Now I think this supposed Nuevo Laredo gun battle is bogus --another internet hoax.

Thanks for the reference.

[OldCannon]

I think that image was pulled from stock mistakenly, but fits the MO -- they use big vehicles (like my Ford Excursion, which is rather popular with both cartels and Secret Service agents ).

I have no reason to believe the slide deck itself was fake -- it's very badly done, with dreadful PowerPoint skills, an apparently an older version of PowerPoint, and scaled for a projector that had poor resolution, maybe 800x600. That and the fact it was dated this year tells me it was likely government work. It takes a clever person to fake shoddy government work like that

[PUCKER]

Absolutely.

Thanks for the reference.

[mctowalot]

I have a question about the gentleman with his head scooped out like a jack 'o lantern. How do you suppose he got that way?
I guessing the large truck tire in the picture had something to do with it.

[baldeagle]

I have a question about the gentleman with his head scooped out like a jack 'o lantern. How do you suppose he got that way?
I guessing the large truck tire in the picture had something to do with it.

Nope. A well placed 50 cal will do that kind of damage.

[mctowalot]

Amazing. That picture leaves no doubt as to what was on his mind!

[VMI77]

I think that image was pulled from stock mistakenly, but fits the MO -- they use big vehicles (like my Ford Excursion, which is rather popular with both cartels and Secret Service agents ).

I have no reason to believe the slide deck itself was fake -- it's very badly done, with dreadful PowerPoint skills, an apparently an older version of PowerPoint, and scaled for a projector that had poor resolution, maybe 800x600. That and the fact it was dated this year tells me it was likely government work. It takes a clever person to fake shoddy government work like that

The photos may indeed be of one or more gun battles in Mexico, and they may be between drug cartels --the analysis may even be correct and informative-- but at this point I am skeptical that the slide show really depicts what it purports to depict --a particular battle in Nuevo Laredo on July 16, 2010.

[Keith B]

I think that image was pulled from stock mistakenly, but fits the MO -- they use big vehicles (like my Ford Excursion, which is rather popular with both cartels and Secret Service agents ).

I have no reason to believe the slide deck itself was fake -- it's very badly done, with dreadful PowerPoint skills, an apparently an older version of PowerPoint, and scaled for a projector that had poor resolution, maybe 800x600. That and the fact it was dated this year tells me it was likely government work. It takes a clever person to fake shoddy government work like that

The photos may indeed be of one or more gun battles in Mexico, and they may be between drug cartels --the analysis may even be correct and informative-- but at this point I am skeptical that the slide show really depicts what it purports to depict --a particular battle in Nuevo Laredo on July 16, 2010.

I'm with you. Remember, this is the Interweb and ANYONE can put stories out there that are semi or total hoaxes. If that weren't the case, then there wouldn't be sites like snopes.com (yeah, I know, they aren't always right either.

Unless it is from a trusted source (wait... wait for it...) like the news media, then I am very skeptical. Now, even with the news media, they get stuff wrong, but I think at least are trying to get the basic straight scoop 99% of the time. That other 1% is when they have inaccurate information to feed from (I am excluding those times when the news media is purposely twisting things they report to sway them in the direction of their liberal views.) However, the base story line is usually fairly accurate about base line of the story.

[baldeagle]

Unless it is from a trusted source (wait... wait for it...) like the news media, then I am very skeptical. Now, even with the news media, they get stuff wrong, but I think at least are trying to get the basic straight scoop 99% of the time. That other 1% is when they have inaccurate information to feed from (I am excluding those times when the news media is purposely twisting things they report to sway them in the direction of their liberal views.) However, the base story line is usually fairly accurate about base line of the story.

Let me disabuse you of that notion.

A few years ago I started a blog (now defunct) named Antimedia. Its purpose was to point out the flaws of the media; what they reported wrong, what they didn't report and the biases they introduced into their stories. The first story I featured was an Associated Press story about a meteorite "the size of a car" hitting just south of a town in Washington state. The first thing I did was Google meteorites and size, because I thought a meteorite that size would probably do a lot of damage. Sure enough, it would leave a crater the size of a football field and cause terrible fires as much as 10 miles from its impact. I thought, "Wow! That must have killed a lot of people!"

So I Googled the town, found city hall and called. Their response? "What meterorite?"

No meteorite of any size had struck anywhere in the area. AP never printed a correction. They simply removed the story from their wires.

This is quite common. Any time a lot of people die (mass shooting, mine explosion, airplane crash, etc.), the media will get the dead and injured count wrong almost 100% of the time. Later on, as time passes and the story progresses, they will get the numbers right, but early on they are almost always wrong. You could consistently make money betting on that. Particularly when it comes to politics, the media consistently reports inaccurately, often reporting debunked stories long after they should have died.

You have to remember, the media isn't interested in truth. They're interested in what sells. The more outrageous, the more amazing, the more stunning a story is, the more likely they are to believe it without question and report it as they were told, without fact checking and without questioning their source. Especially when the source is anonymous, they will run with a story which is completely and utterly false, simply because it makes for good headlines and sells.

So, when it comes to the media, don't trust, always verify. The less "sexy" a story is, the more likely it is that they got it right - and vice versa.