This Chevy Suburban fitted with a M2 machine gun was found in Nuevo Laredo Mexico, just across the Rio Grande from Texas:
Pretty scary considering some points of Nuevo Laredo are less than a mile from houses in Texas! (Google Map)
Unsurprisingly, Google does not have “street view” on their maps in that part of Mexico. Probably something to do with their automated censor program not being able to tell a dead body from a live one. :P
Looks like the M2 would have limited mobility in the back of that suburban because due to the barrel length it would be trapped between the frame on the back right side window.
Hat Tip: Stormbringer
Comments
39 responses to “M2 Machine Gun Used In Mexican Cartel Firefight”
Yeesh, that definitely seems like a “spray and pray” solution… not only is the barrel absurdly limited in its range of motion, but getting behind the handles to actually aim looks damned near impossible.
I really have to wonder why they did not just point it out the back… or truncate the barrel and give themselves more room. Or use a larger vehicle.
Of course, all that wondering does not even begin to touch on how freakish an M2 mounted in a drug cartel’s truck is…
Our deployable out the top “secret service” style! Then they could have 360 degrees of range.
either way, can you imagine the NOISE? Firing an M2 in an enclosed vehicle can’t be good for your ears.
No kidding! I doubt any “off the shelf” ear protection would do any good for that.
I’m glad the guys that had it weren’t smart enough to mount it any better than that.
I’m glad on the limited range of movement if they were shooting at the police or random people. On the other hand, If they were shooting at rival gangs and drug dealers though I think it’s disappointing they limited the effectiveness of that weapon.
Any day, I expect to Hillary Klinton or Sarah Brady or Barry Sotero to announce that this gun was acquired at a WalMart in Texas or a gun show in Arizona.
hahah yea.
DAMN that gun show loophole! :P
Actually the noise would be less than a simple ground mount. All the noise is at the muzzle, and if it’s outside with the body of the vehicle to block some of it, so much the better.
Former USMC M1A1 Abrams crewman — neither the 120mm or the .50 M2 sound like much from inside a buttoned-down tank (all hatches closed) but darned loud outside. Laying under the 120mm main gun without hearing protection would almost certainly cause massive permanent hearing loss…
Interesting! Thanks for the insight Jeremiah.
Yeah as an 11B just recently returned from Afghanistan, I will say that Jeremiah is correct. The M2 doesn’t sound like much when you’re behind it, but the guys outside are gone be deaf. And probably dead. Although by the looks of that setup, not much aiming is going to occur with no room behind the weapon. Still, where did they get that?
“Still, where did they get that?”
Haven’t you heard? They went into Texas and bought it over the counter in Amarillo. I hear it’s a big problem these days, what with rednecks and teabaggers selling crew-served automatic weapons without paperwork through the gunshow loophole.
We can only hope they pass another law imposing even stiffer penalties and fines on all those thieves, crooks, robbers, drug dealers and criminals to discourage them from selling those evil firearms during the course of their murders, rapes, kidnappings and trafficking in illegal narcotics. That’ll solve the problem!
Now, if you’ll excuse me, it’s time for my medication and my 9 am electroshock session.
Doc.
More extreme penalties would definitely be good. But I still foresee a lot of bad stuff slipping through the cracks as long as the Mexican police (I hear) are corrupt and can be paid off.
Time to switch the batteries in your sarcasm detector, Mike. Daylight Savins and all that, y’know. :)
Doc.
And yet Doc, no one told it was automatic, what if it was a semi-auto ma’deuce?
@ Alehandro: They probably bought it at the same place were they got their 37mm grenade launchers and Mossberg 500 sniper rifles.
@ Doc: I was hugging some trees with some friends today from the “Grenola Enthusist Club” and showed them this. We all agree, more gun control! Guns are bad and cause global warming. The world would be so wonderful if there were no guns. It would be really hard to kill someone with hugs.
…. I just vomited in my mouth a little …
Or maybe from the same place that the bosses of Anahí Beltrán Cabrera got their AR-50.
I’ve stated it before and I’ll state it again, the longer the gun users in the United States continue to IGNORE the facts and keep telling themselves “yeah right, those guns don’t come from here” the more time you are giving to the brady bunch and the like to prepare a solid offensive and put up another AWB.
I’m a pro-gun Méxican and I hate the stupid attitude some of the gun-folks take, YOU ARE JUST SHOOTING YOURSELVES ON THE FOOT FOR ALLOWING THIS!
No freaking way did they buy a Ma Deuce in the US (at least not a fully-automatic one). That’s what, $30K or so of gunmetal if it’s a transferable MG?
That came from a Mexican army armory, not a US private owner.
As I said, they NEVER stated it was automatic. NEVER.
In which case it’s still highly expensive and rare. I don’t doubt that there are M2HB semiauto replica – but a quick poke at google shows a range from US$9,500 to US$10,500. And at that point, why bother? Especially since the last I had heard, it would be illegal in Mexico anyway, on the grounds of firing a military caliber
Grasping at straws like “who said it was a machine gun” is sort of silly in this case. Even if it wasn’t a machine gun, it’s still a horrifically-expensive item when legally purchased in the US; and EVEN MORE pointless in this case if it is semi-automatic – at least if it is FA a driveby with the triggers held down would be marginally effective.
Ian, why would they bother for it beign illegal to begin with?
And grasping at straws like “Horrifically-expensive” has no value at all,
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6mLU3m2mK0&feature=related
check that vid, see the armalite?
http://img85.imageshack.us/my.php?image=itu14.jpg
see the Barret?
If this guys can purchase GMC Sierras why wouldn’t they be able to purchase a 10k weapon?.
Wake UP people!
They obviously have no regard for what is legal and what isn’t… so why would they waste even a penny on a semi auto ma deuce replica, when without doubt they could get the real thing. From the footage I have seen on TV, and pictures on the internet, I’t doesn’t seem like money is any issue.
Why assume a rich man’s toy (semi-auto M2HB is a rich man’s toy) came from the US at a gun show (and had to be smuggled across a border) when a much simpler explanation is that it was bribed out of a mexican army armory?
I’m not saying it couldn’t be a semi-auto replica from a US gun show; I’m saying it’s extremely unlikely; and it would be IMPOSSIBLE to be a full-auto and purchased at a gun show (and, in fact, I say that no matter the cost – given the paperwork necessary to transfer an NFA device).
Because of the simple fact that the Mexican army usually roles with the H&K 21E, instead of .50s, it’s too cost prohibiting for them, they do have them, but they are not that common.
That’s in the same manner that their rifles, if they where to be bribed as usually, you’d see a heck of a lot of G3s in the hands of narcos, one heck of a lot, but no, you see bushmaster etc, I’m not blaming either manufacturer, I’m blaming the smugglers and them only.
Those guns come actually from the old arsenals that the dumb U.S. politicians left behind in south america, after ending their stupid proxy wars during Cold War…
And Alejando is right,
The mexican army uses only Hk G3 rifles and more recently the FX-05 Xiuhcoatl (the first mexican pure made assault rifle), meanwhile the Mexicans Marines use the M16A2 rifle and the newer Sig-516 carbines, and although both dependencies uses heavy and medium machine guns in their vehicles, their number is very limited and the inventory is strictly controlled by the federal government, the same happens with the expensive and scarce M107 Barret rifles. The police personel uses old CAR-15 variants alongside MP5’s and P90’s in minor scale. If the narcos supposedly get their weapons through mexicans armies, then we should have already seen a lot of them with the same weapons that the mexican soldiers and marines have, don’t you think, so? The narcos use mostly AK-47, AK-74, AKM, Type 56 rifles and newer cheap ass AR-15 semiautomatic carbines (later converted to fully automatic with kits easily acquired through e-bay or mercado libre) with piccatiny rails and expensive attachments as acog sights, laser and flashlights accesories, bipods and foregrips, they also use Galils, FN Fal, FN2000, FN SCAR rifles, Uzis, mac-10 submachine guns, engraved M1911, Beretta 92, Desert Deagle and FN 5.7 Pistols, M60, M240, RPK medium machine guns, RPG-7 propelled grenades, LAW launchers, M203 grenade launchers and a big, really big number of 50 cal. weaponry, curiously, they also use U.S. Army and USMC ballistic vest equipment, some of them even with the same camo patterns actually in use by both dependencies…
As I previously said, they acquire all this stuff from illegal vendors in south america,, middle east and asia: if we go back to the 70’s and 80’s we would see how during the cold war scheme, both, the U.S. and the U.S.S.R. governments, trained and equipped entire proxy countries to fight their ideologies, when the cold war was over, both sides retreated back, leaving behind a lot of weapons caches. But the narcos also get their weapons through chinese illegal shipments, and in minor way, through corrupt vendors in the U.S. soil.
I’m too a pro-gun mexican, and I also share my partner opinion, the cartel problem in my country is not just responsability of the mexicans, the U.S. people and their government are strongly involved as well, without consumers the narcos would have nothing to sell, and the U.S. is the number 1 firearms country producer in the world and also the country with more drug consumers
come off it, the US is not responsible for your people being corrupt and cowards. Mexicans have kept the old spanish class system going, your garbage constitution says the people have the right to be armed, yet your corrupt system prevents it. Mexicans are too cowardly to fix the problem, and would instead rather come an leach off the US, spreading your garbage culture of corruption and crime as you go. Grow some, put on your big girl pants, grab a rifle, and cleanup your country yourselves. Arm the people and see the corruption and crime drop.
come off it, the US is not responsible for your people being corrupt and cowards. Mexicans have kept the old spanish class system going, your garbage constitution says the people have the right to be armed, yet your corrupt system prevents it. Mexicans are too cowardly to fix the problem, and would instead rather come and leach off the US, spreading your garbage culture of corruption and crime as you go. Grow some, put on your big girl pants, grab a rifle, and cleanup your country yourselves. Arm the people and see the corruption and crime drop.
At that angle through that window, the weapon looks virtually useless, which makes the photo seem to be possible propaganda. A photo-op sort of thing, as opposed to a photoshop thing. There is not enough room behind the weapon for an operator to be able to properly operate the weapon, unless it is set up for operation from a remote location, in which case it would likely be equipped with a real-time camera aimed in conjunction with the weapon at a pre-determined target that the remote operator is reasonably certain will pass through the viewfinder, and when it does, activate a servo and open fire!
I don’t think cartels are known for their pinpoint accuracy, and operational safety. If there is no room behind the gun, I’m sure they just fire it from the side with the seats folded down “spray and pray” style.
See, the problem is that you guys can’t see the license plate, which explains everything. It reads: MEX130. That, gentlefolk, is a Mexican Cartel AC-130. As for the small amount of space behind the weapon, this was not thought to be a problem, as they hired Verne Troyer to be their fire control officer.
hahaha AC-130 & Verne Troyer!
If its a genuine M-2 captured from genuine cartel-types, then surely they were caught with it before they finished mounting it. Otherwise, the operator of the weapon would seem to be remiss in allowing it to be captured. Gonna have to find and read the story now
Looks like plenty of space behind the weapon to fire it… through those things we in the tactical community like to cal…. doors. ;)
(And it looks like van, but then again, most SUV’s these days are minivans that try not to look like minivans)
There may be a convenient point to plant the post centerline?
I have to wonder why they just didn’t put the mount on the side window a la the side guns on the B-17; as is it’s not stealthy anyway
Yea that would make more sense, and probably be a lot easier to use considering the barrel already sticks almost a foot out the window by the looks of it.
I vote for the spray and pray scenario. It would be perfect for a sideways strafing run at a wedding party or a ‘made man’ ceremony, but it doesn’t seem likely that a group would go into a firefight with the weapon in that position. If its a van, I’d want it either out the side door or out the back, but then, I’ve never been in a firefight
It isn’t set up to be used for a drive by. It’s set up to be used like a piece of mobile field artillery. There is a side cargo door on the drivers side that is open in the picture. The operator stands outside the vehicle to fire the weapon. The ammo can is mounted on the left side and the shells would either be ejected out the back door or they could close the back door and let them pile up inside the van if they don’t want to leave evidence. This set up would be very effective and difficult to spot considering the range it has. It could be parked anywhere and when it’s time to rock and roll just open the cargo door and side window, swing the gun into postition and let it rip. The Browning can be used with good accuracy for over a mile and and the round still lethal at more than four miles. With the different rounds available you can take out almost anything short of a tank with one.
For stealth hey probably keep the gun on the floor until ready to use then mount it with the window pointed in the target direction. Brownings have a fire rate of 600 to 1200 rounds per minute depending on model, Considering the standard Browning spits out 10 rounds per second one of these you could level a small mexican village in a matter of minutes. I don’t think the cost of the weapon was a consideration when they got this. A basic .50 BMG round is $5-$7 and tracer, armor piercing or incendiary rounds are much more expensive. At $5 per round it costs $3000 to operate the weapon for 1 minute. Mony is no problem if you can afford to play like that.