The U.S. guards the border. The Mexican army patrols the streets.
Yet the cartels keep coming up with new ways to get their drugs into the United States.
Police in Mexico recently seized a "narco-tank," a pickup truck fitted with steel armor, reports the BBC (see photo).
A drug gang is thought to have transformed the 2011 F-Series Super Duty into a homemade armored vehicle fitted with metal reinforcements.
Here are a few more examples of the creative efforts of Mexico's drug traffickers:
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