Cartel del Golfo narco - espionage network dismantled in Reynosa

Translated by Otis B Fly-Wheel for Borderland Beat from a Proceso article

[ Subject Matter: Narco Surveillance Network used to spy on the Army
Recommendation: No prior subject matter knowledge required]

Reporter: Proceso Redaction and Benjamin Flores
State Police of the Tamaulipas Force, dismantled in Reynosa, a system of narco espionage, of organized criminals that consisted of a circuit of cameras installed in this Town.

The Tamaulipas Group for Coordination informed in a communication that the network was installed at 52 points of high impact to carry the data from 39 cameras operating via the internet, with which they carried out surveillance of the actions of the State and Federal Forces of security, as well as the civilian population.

The dismantling took place Monday and Tuesday past by elements of the Tamaulipas Force, with support of the Military who provided security at the places where State Police retired the apparatus.

During the operation to retire the devices, members of a criminal group that operate in this frontier Town, on realizing the network was being dismantled, retreated and switched off 18 cameras on the network.


The majority of the cameras were installed on electricity and telephone poles belonging to the Federal Commission of Electricity (CFE), and Mexican Telephones.

The 52 points of narco espionage dismantled were located opposite installations of the Eighth Military Zone, Marina, PGR and Tamaulipas Force, like the Avenue Villa Dorada, Morelos Boulevard, Luis Donaldo Colosio Boulevard, Las Fuentes Boulevard, in commercial centres and fraccionamientos.

The video cameras have the capacity to transmit wired or wirelessly, and sent through the internet via telephone lines and or cable services. They have in addition, modems, video, encoded data to video cards, and electric cables.

In the Las Fuentes Colonia, in the Aztlan section, were found five points of "halcon", with each point being able to handle five incoming camera feeds. Officials indicated that the video system belongs to the Cartel del Golfo.

Original article in Spanish at Proceso
Additional picture from Milenio