Mexico. A drug cartel in the northern state of Tamaulipas used at least 39 surveillance cameras to monitor authorities' movements in the border city of Reynosa, Mexican officials said a few days ago.
The cameras received power from power lines located above the streets, and were connected to the internet through telephone cables along the same poles, according to a statement from state authorities.
The cameras included modems and had the ability to operate wirelessly or across commercial vendor lines. The release of the find came a day after President Enrique Peña Nieto visited the city, but authorities said the cameras were seized Monday and Tuesday.
Several of the cameras were focused on an army base, while others captured movements outside a navy post, the offices of the Attorney General's Office and state police, as well as shopping malls, major avenues and some neighborhoods.
The devices were identified after the authorities' own security cameras detected suspicious people making installations on poles, said a source from the state security coordination group who insisted on anonymity because she was not authorized to give details of the case.
Once cartel members realized authorities had discovered their network, they removed 18 cameras before officials could seize them, the statement said. Authorities did not provide the name of the cartel. But Reynosa, which sits across the Rio Grande from McAllen, Texas, has been the scene of intense violence in recent months between alleged factions of the Gulf Cartel.
Cartels have long employed "hawks," individuals strategically located in the territories they dominate, to monitor the movements of authorities and rival drug traffickers. The camera surveillance network could simply be a technological breakthrough based on the same idea, and one that is increasingly being used by governments around the world to fight crime.
For years, the cartels have erected their own communication networks in the border area, with everything and antennas. Since the beginning of the year, Mexican authorities have seized 55 radiocommunication antennas between the border cities of Matamoros and Miguel Aleman.
