RPG's in Mexical Fight: Update on Nuevo Laredo

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[ARCHIVED THREAD] - RPG's in Mexical Fight: Update on Nuevo Laredo

Posted: 7/31/2005 9:02:24 PM EDT

This news story this cought my attention What would a well armed ARFCOMER do in this situation?

TEXT

Outgunned cops patrol only part of border city
Web Posted: 07/31/2005 12:00 AM CDT

Lisa Sandberg
Express-News Staff Writer

NUEVO LAREDO — When masked gunmen attacked a house in the upscale Campestre neighborhood Thursday night, they fired rocket-propelled grenades and semi-automatic rifles.

When about 80 members of the city's brand new police force reported for duty last week, there weren't enough guns to go around. Officers had to share their weapons, turning their guns in after their shifts.

While rival drug lords fire with impunity — wherever it strikes their fancy it seems — the new police force is restricted for the time being to the city's central district.

"We're waiting for more personnel and armaments," said Jesus Muro Garcia, 29, commander of the municipal plaza substation. "Their weapons are a lot more powerful than anything we have."

Welcome to the streets of this Mexican border city, where an out-of-control turf war among drug cartels has left more than 100 dead this year, including almost a dozen police officers. And last month, the city's new police chief was killed six hours after assuming office.

The escalating violence apparently has proved too unsettling for U.S. Ambassador Tony Garza, who Friday, citing the "unusually advanced weaponry" used in the Thursday night attack, announced he was shutting the consulate for at least a week.

Since earlier this year, the State Department had issued a travel advisory warning Americans to take caution when traveling to the border region, specifically in Nuevo Laredo.

The advisory expired Thursday.

By most accounts, the recent attack was particularly brazen. According to media reports, more than 1,000 rounds of ammunition were fired, turning quiet Mexicali Street in the tony Campestre neighborhood into a virtual war zone.

Using rocket-propelled grenades, assailants tore three big holes through the blue outer wall of a once-charming house. Windows a full block away were shattered. A 15-minute shootout ensued between those inside the house and the attackers.

No one was believed killed in the battle, and no one has been arrested, though Muro said several people at the home may have been kidnapped. He did not know who lived there.

Rosa Estela Manzanales, 56, was sitting in her courtyard two doors down when the first of several explosions shattered the calm of a humid late July night.

"It was worse than a war," she said of the 8 p.m. attack.

"I thought it was only in movies, but right here," she said, pointing around her, "with our grandchildren and everything. I don't know how we are still alive."

She and 11 members of her family — children and grandchildren — dove for the concrete floor of their humble home that sits amid opulent houses. She and her family remained, trembling but quiet, until the last weapon had gone silent.

The police arrived afterward, she said, to mop up the mess.

Manzanales said she knew the family in the blue house only casually. They were recent arrivals to the neighborhood, renters she believed, who seemed pleasant and well adjusted.

She has come to accept that the violence now has spread to her quiet Mexicali Street, which was wilderness when her family settled it many decades ago. But things are different now.

"You go out, and you don't come back," she said.

In all, 460 city police officers have been cleared to return to work six weeks after 700 of them were yanked off the street in a massive anti-corruption probe.

The returning officers have cleared a host of evaluations, including polygraph and drug tests.

The entire force was tainted by indications that officers have been rewarded by or intimidated into working for drug cartels fighting for control of smuggling routes into South Texas.

But only those whose weapons have been delivered are back on patrol, Muro said. Others mill about the downtown substation in their pressed black and white new uniforms, filled with a restless nervousness.

"We don't have the arms necessary to do this job," said a five-year-patrol officer who gave his name only as Carlos. "You see what they have — grenades, sophisticated arms."

At least four of Carlos' colleagues from the substation have been killed in the past year. Two were shot to death in broad daylight five blocks from the police station.

Officials have said many city cops work as lookouts for the Gulf Cartel, which is alleged to control the lucrative drug smuggling routes into South Texas.

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman of the Sinaloa Cartel and his allies are vying for the turf, which is believed to be part of the reason for the police deaths.

Muro said his family and friends all beg him to "do something else."

"A lot of times I think about leaving," he said.

But in the end, he notes, "I like the work."

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Rules of the game:
1) Not your house being assaulted. Directly next door.
2) 15 minute gun battle - cops to show AFTER the last shots are fired.
3) US border state, not Mexico.

EDIT to correct post format - got'ta use "preview" next time.

Posted: 7/31/2005 9:05:14 PM EDT

[#1]

Shoot the guy with the tube and then try and put a few rounds into the tube itself.

Hard to use them when the projectile will not load I would imagine.

AH, just one more post till 762!! Need to find something special...

Posted: 7/31/2005 9:06:41 PM EDT

[#2]

Originally Posted
No one was believed killed in the battle, and no one has been arrested,

Not worry much apparently.

Posted: 7/31/2005 9:09:04 PM EDT

[#3]

15 minutes is plenty of time for me to get to the safe, hand-out some NFA toys to the family and lay down suppressive fire, if the situation warrants.

First guy I see with an RPG is going to be meatsack, courtsey of 168gr .308

I should add that three of my tac team members live with in a block of me. I'm guessing the narco-terrorists are gonna lose.

Sheep

Posted: 7/31/2005 9:09:36 PM EDT

[#4]

Go on the offensive.

Posted: 7/31/2005 9:29:19 PM EDT

[#5]

I keep reading how much more family-oriented and mentally healthy the Mexican people and way of life are than folks from Estados Unidos.

It's a much slower pace of life, with those exploding RPG rounds.

Posted: 7/31/2005 9:34:41 PM EDT

[#6]

Quoted:
Originally Posted
No one was believed killed in the battle, and no one has been arrested,

Not worry much apparently.

+1.

Over a thousand rounds fired, grenades-o-plenty, FA rifles, gratuitous RPG-fu....and they didn't even succeed in killing anybody!

Sounds like they can't shoot worth shit.

Posted: 7/31/2005 9:36:25 PM EDT

[#7]

Is the A-team operating in Mexico?

Posted: 7/31/2005 9:38:32 PM EDT

[#8]

I would trust my Remington 700 sniper rifle in .308 with match ammo will be more accurate at 600 yds than one of these jokers will be with his RPG. In the cases where snipers go up against RPG'ers at long range, the results are usually pretty lopsided in favor of the sniper.

Posted: 7/31/2005 9:38:33 PM EDT

[#9]

Quoted:
I keep reading how much more family-oriented and mentally healthy the Mexican people and way of life are than folks from Estados Unidos.

It's a much slower pace of life, with those exploding RPG rounds.

Just like how New Yorkers are the archtypical down-to-earth Americans.

Posted: 7/31/2005 9:38:42 PM EDT

[#10]

Quoted:
Is the A-team operating in Mexico?

LOL I thought exactly the same thing

Posted: 7/31/2005 9:40:21 PM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
Is the A-team operating in Mexico?

Nope, Mexican Special Forces on the drug payroll, coming to a border town near you.

Be afraid, very afraid

Posted: 7/31/2005 9:41:47 PM EDT

[#12]

Although living next door to the target house of skilled marksmen like these may be more dangerous than living in the target house, I would keep my and my family's f'g heads down. You might think that shooting at gunmen from a drug cartel is a fun thing to do, I think that pissing off a drug cartel IS NOT conducive to a long and happy life.

Some of you trigger happy keyboard commandoes may think killing a mexican bandito is almost as fun as jerking off, but in the long run, staying off their shit list should be your number 1 concern in that scenario. The second being Moving ASAP. If they can't score hits on the right house, what makes you thhink the next batch is going to find the right house?

Common sense needs to be applied some times.

Posted: 7/31/2005 9:46:28 PM EDT

[#13]

I'm thinking:

Go with zombie defense Q-13 "Static Defense for armed Land of the Dead Class 2 Outbreak"

1. Get wife and child to fortified basement.
2. Arm them with pistol cal. carbine, AR15, and Glock 17&26. Death to anyone that enters.
3. I would head for the first floor with G3 clone, Mossy 500 w/ mixed slug & buck shot, assortment of hand cannons of large caliber.
4. I'd stay on my belly with a view of the front and back doors (good thing about an old rancher made of block and plaster - open floor plan and cover).
5. Anyone who enters gets it.

Hope and pray that none of the rounds enter my house.

Posted: 7/31/2005 9:49:42 PM EDT

[#14]

Quoted:
Although living next door to the target house of skilled marksmen like these may be more dangerous than living in the target house, I would keep my and my family's f'g heads down. You might think that shooting at gunmen from a drug cartel is a fun thing to do, I think that pissing off a drug cartel IS NOT conducive to a long and happy life.

Some of you trigger happy keyboard commandoes may think killing a mexican bandito is almost as fun as jerking off, but in the long run, staying off their shit list should be your number 1 concern in that scenario. The second being Moving ASAP. If they can't score hits on the right house, what makes you thhink the next batch is going to find the right house?

Common sense needs to be applied some times.

Fine. You hide in the closest. I will be glassing the AO for shitbags while the wife is on tx with the PD and we await the arrival of the rest of my tac unit and every other city, county and state copper with in 25 miles.

It's exactly their piss-poor marksmanship that concerns me. Far as I am concerned, they are about as likely to rocket my house as they are to hit their intended target.

As many dope houses as we have been taking off lately, I wouldn't be suprised to find I am already on a shitlist. BFD.

Sheep

Posted: 7/31/2005 9:56:46 PM EDT

[#15]

Quoted:
Quoted:
Originally Posted
No one was believed killed in the battle, and no one has been arrested,

Not worry much apparently.

+1.

Over a thousand rounds fired, grenades-o-plenty, FA rifles, gratuitous RPG-fu....and they didn't even succeed in killing anybody!

Sounds like they can't shoot worth shit.

Military Weaponry without Military Training = Clusterf*ck.

Posted: 7/31/2005 10:10:59 PM EDT

[#16]

I would CLOSE THE BORDER!!

Posted: 7/31/2005 10:56:34 PM EDT

[#17]

Quoted:
I would CLOSE THE BORDER!!

Posted: 7/31/2005 11:09:24 PM EDT

[#18]

I would see if they would like to sell me their RPG. I would make a fair offer! Shit why fight when you can do business.

From Kellys Heros, see if they are Republican!

Posted: 8/1/2005 12:36:37 AM EDT

[#19]

Call in an ARC LIGHT.

CW

Posted: 8/1/2005 1:21:18 AM EDT

[#20]

nuke'em from orbit! its the only way to be sure!

Posted: 8/7/2005 8:15:53 PM EDT

[#21]

Seems like the newest police chief got shot all to hell. www.foxnews.com and look at the video report.

Hope you guys in Laredo, TX USA have battened down the hatches and set up road blocks.

Posted: 8/7/2005 8:20:54 PM EDT

[#22]

I'd just wait for some of the few hundred Marines training in my town in urban warfare to show up. There's never less than a dozen or so Humvee's and a few big trucks full of them playing in the old base housing that they've turned into Iraq for urban CQB training. Some nights I can hear the explosions where I live four miles away!

Posted: 8/7/2005 8:28:43 PM EDT

[#23]

Sounds like we didn't take care of Pancho Villa last time.

Where is Black Jack when you need him???

Posted: 8/7/2005 8:32:08 PM EDT

[#24]

Who's up for a "hunting" trip along the border in South Texas?

Posted: 8/7/2005 8:43:53 PM EDT

[#25]

N A F T A

North
American
Free
Terrorist
Act

Build the wall, or buy ammo, the choice is yours.

Posted: 8/7/2005 8:44:43 PM EDT

[#26]

Quoted:
Seems like the newest police chief got shot all to hell. www.foxnews.com and look at the video report.

Hope you guys in Laredo, TX USA have battened down the hatches and set up road blocks.

Zaphod goes there everyday.....

Posted: 8/7/2005 8:46:29 PM EDT

[#27]

I'll take "Haul Ass" for 300.

Posted: 8/8/2005 1:02:00 PM EDT

[#28]

Quoted:
N A F T A

North
American
Free
Terrorist
Act

Build the wall, or buy ammo, the choice is yours.

AMMO! AMMO!

Posted: 8/8/2005 1:05:28 PM EDT

[#29]

Guys, do me a favor, will you?

Before you shut down the border, send in the B-52's, and nuke the place from orbit, please make sure I'm not in the office, OK?

Thanks.