IEDS in Mexico

By Dave Anderson:

The level and sophistication of violencein Mexico is increasing.  What were night visits, and mafia-eqsue intimidation, assassinations and shootings in 2005 has become complex, multi-tiered coordinated actions of multiple gangs against other gangs and the Mexican state.  The Zetas had always possessed a quasi-conventional military capacity as they originated from defectors of elite Mexican assault units and special forces, but other cartels have formalized their capacity to use violence to achieve strategic results across most of the northern border zone. 

An Austin TV station reportson the expansion of weaponry and capacity into IED manufacturing:

CHANNEL 5 NEWS learned the weapons are also in the hands of the drug cartels in Mexico.

On March 30, more than 50 cartel members attacked the Mexican military in Matamoros and Reynosa.  Eighteen people died.

Soldiers seized 50 rifles, 60 hand grenades, and eight IEDs...

He says the IEDs used in Matamoros and Reynosa were mining grade explosives.

"As you're experimenting with the craft of bomb making, there's going to be a learning curve to it," explains the analyst.

That means cartel bomb makers are getting more advanced....

Mining grade explosives are better quality explosives than the Ammonia Nitrate (ANFO) fertilizer based explosives used in most Afghan IEDS.  Commercial grade explosives are easier to mix, easier to mold, easier to detonate safely and predictably and also easier to track if they originated in the US.  Commercial grade explosives that are available in Mexico are less powerful than the military grade explosives that powered a significant fraction of Iraqi IEDS. 

DOD Buzznotes the IED innovation cycle is compressing as the knowledge is being disseminated across a broad network and it is available for whomever wants to take the risk to experiment:

an example of the rapid pace of bomber innovation, Barker said it took the Irish Republican Army 30 years to progress from command wire bombs to remotely triggered devices. �By contrast, it took about six years for militants to make the same improvements in Chechnya, three year for fighters in Gaza, and about 12 months for insurgents in Iraq.�

The IED bazaar is found on the internet, said retired general and former commander of the Pentagon�s counter-IED task force, Montgomery Meigs, who also spoke at New America. How-to manuals and an extensive video catalog of attacks are readily available on the internet. The IED phenomenon has gone global, Meigs said, with drug cartels in northern Mexico now using the weapons.

IEDs are effective area denial and channeling devices where guerrilla and/or cartel armed forces can operate with a higher degree of security as clearing and securing routes against IEDs is costly and time consuming or impose an operational tax on state security forces.  A proliferation of IED capacity in northern Mexico that is targeted mainly at elements of the Mexican state and its security forces would be very bad news as that would cement the northern border zone as a temporary autonomous region.