Mexico is fighting a war. A brutal, inexhaustible war against rich, powerful, merciless drug cartels. The rich part is key, as they’re able to afford nice toys like a completely private communications network — until government commandos destroyed it.
As much as cartels like the might Zetas rule parts of Mexico, taking illegal drug talkin’ (and war plannin’) off the network is smart. So the Zetas built their own: solar-powered microwave radio towers that spanned distributed across 10 Mexican cities in Veracruz, allowing completely encrypted, covert chatter.
But months of intel gathering by Mexican Navy commandos tipped them off to the network, and they were able to dismantle it entirely. Now the Zetas are without an important chunk of their country-wide strategy — but are still spray blood and bullets all over Mexico. It’s tough to fight the bad guys when the bad guys are as well-equipped as you are — this is a hell of a leap beyond barely-floating cocaine subs. [Borderland Beat via DefenseTech]