The man sat on a worn-out office chair in the backroom of a market in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, amid vegetable trimmings and a haphazard stack of milk crates. He wore a blue shirt, worn jeans – and a ski mask.

He asked to be referred by a nickname, “El Flaco” – the skinny guy – so authorities could not identify him. He works as a mercenary, he said, and had come to discuss a closely guarded secret of Mexico’s most powerful cartels: The FGM 148 Javelin infrared-guided, missile launcher.

El Flaco maintains he has been trained to perform special operations using shoulder-fired weapons, including the Javelin. He said he now trains others to use it as well.

David Saucedo, a security consultant, confirmed the Javelin is being used by cartels and suggested they could be revealing this information as a show of force to Mexico’s incoming president, who is to take power later this year.

Poster Comment:

The Javelin was sent to the Ukraine. The Ukrainians sold it to drug cartels, war lords and other assorted bad guys. The Javelin did not do much to stop the Russians.