Top-level spyware, deadly drones, and encrypted networks give Mexican cartels a high degree of sophistication.
South Texas rancher Antonio Céspedes Saldierna, 74, was driving his pickup on his ranch in Mexico when his vehicle ran over an improvised explosive device (IED), detonating it.
The force of the explosion flipped his truck onto its side, killing the retiree and his friend inside. A third occupant, his friend’s wife, was hospitalized.
The incident happened in January near the Mexican town of San Fernando in Tamaulipas, just south of the border from Brownsville, Texas.
Saldierna, a U.S. citizen, immigrated to the United States in the 1970s to pursue the American dream, according to his son, U.S. Army veteran Ramiro Céspedes.
He told The Epoch Times that his father, who worked on both sides of the U.S.–Mexico border, was a victim of Mexican cartel terrorism.
Céspedes, a veteran of conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan, is all too familiar with IEDs. He was awarded a Purple Heart after being injured by an explosive device during a tour of duty.
He said IEDs and drones are something fairly new that the cartels are using in their turf wars with rival organizations.
“I’ve stated that the way that my father was killed was a terrorist tactic because I saw those tactics in Iraq,” Céspedes said.
Céspedes said the cartels have armor-plated vehicles, Kevlar vests, night vision technology, and 50-caliber sniper rifles—equipment every bit as sophisticated as that of the Mexican military.
“Nowadays, it’s more like defending a small army against another small army—and there’s a lot of collateral damage,” he said of the cartels.
“I think President Trump’s policy is putting a lot of pressure on Mexico. I can see it here at the border.”
The U.S. Embassy in Mexico issued a warning in January concerning IEDs. It noted that on Jan. 23, an IED had destroyed a Mexican official’s vehicle in Rio Bravo, Mexico, injuring the occupant just days before Saldierna’s death.
The incident spotlighted the growing sophistication of the cartels, whose criminal human and drug smuggling operations have flourished in recent years.
