On July 15, the Juarez drug cartel detonated a car bomb on the streets of Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, less than a mile from the U.S. border. The use of car bombs represents a new tactic in the escalating street violence between drug cartels and Mexican authorities, much of it in the cities that hug the US border.

The Juarez cartel dressed a wounded man as a police officer and then lured law enforcement to his side by calling in a report of an officer down. When first responders attempted to help the wounded man, a car bomb with more than 20 pounds of explosives inside was detonated, killing four people and wounding 20.

Pieces of the bomb, including this briefcase, were found after the explosion. The Juarez cartel was targeting law enforcement because of the arrest of a high-ranking cartel member, and because cartel members believed that Mexican officials were favoring, and aiding, the rival Sinaloa drug cartel.

Three-inch drywall screws were packed inside the car bomb to inflict maximum damage on human targets.

The detonator cord for the bomb. A week after the car bombing, Mexican officials found similar bomb ingredients in a city 200 miles south of Juarez after another gun battle with the cartel.

The day after the car bombing in Ciudad Juarez, drug gangs in another city on the Mexico-Texas border, Nuevo Laredo, engaged in a sophisticated, two-hour gun battle involving walkie talkies, armored vests, and automatic weapons.

Mexican federal police entered the fray against both gangs and eventually prevailed. The two gangs used SUVs, trucks and stolen vehicles in the battle, and used the parked vehicles as firing positions.

Mexican police recovered walkie talkies and automatic weapons after the gun battle.

One of the gangs in the Nuevo Laredo gun battle used a stolen truck to block the street.