Amid Mexican chaos, a business thrives

Gunmen with suspected ties to a drug cartel, wearing police uniforms, opened fire and killed three federal police officers at a food court in Mexico City’s international airport Monday, panicking bystanders.

While the incident was the first of its kind at the airport, it was also a reminder for residents of the nation’s relatively safe capital of killings occurring regularly across the country, the result of turf wars between drug gangs that have killed at least 55,000 people since a crackdown on drug cartels began in 2006, according to the Wall Street Journal.

The crimes haven’t been run-of-the-mill killings, either.

Decapitations, dismemberments and other grisly acts have been an all-too-regular feature, particularly in the country’s northern states.

Just last month, authorities found the dismembered bodies of more than four dozen people stuffed into bags and dumped on a highway near the northern industrial city of Monterrey.

But, even in the anarchic state that exists throughout parts of the country, there is opportunity.

Mexico’s armored car business, not surprisingly, is thriving.

Global Armour has seen its Mexico operations increase 15 percent this year, the result of a boom in private security in the country, according to the BBC.

“There was a time when armored cars were the sole reserve of CEOs or political elites, but in a sign of the growing fear in the country, most customers are now ordinary people who are concerned about the fighting and can afford to bullet-proof the family car,” the report adds.

More evidence that even in the worst of times, there’s always someone, somewhere who can find a way to profit by meeting an unfilled need. And if it saves lives along the way, all the better.

(Above: A police inspector investigates a vehicle after it was targeted by drug gangs in Hermosillo, Mexico. Photo by the Knight Foundation.)

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