Here is an excerpt from the Agence France-Presse article on ABS-CBNNews.com:
"Police seized an anti-aircraft machine gun mounted on a van and other heavy weapons at a house in northern Mexico near the US border, an official said Tuesday... The machine gun seized in Sonora state, bordering Arizona in the United States, could fire 800 shots per minute up to 1,500 meters away, said Rodolfo Cruz, from the federal public security ministry, at a news conference. Police also found a grenade launcher, five shotguns, a hand grenade, and scores of magazines and cartridges." Link to Full Article
Analysis: This is the kind of seizure I would define as interesting for many reasons. First, it hasn't been widely publicized yet; it was difficult to find a link to the story aside from Agence France-Presse. Second, if the story is true, I think it's strange and oddly amusing that a 
Mexican DTO (reportedly the stash belongs to the Beltran Leyva Organization) would possess an anti-aircraft gun. Not only are they enormous and unwieldy, but practical uses for them in an urban setting are limited at best. Regardless, we first need to determine what kind of gun it was. While this may never come out in the media, I did a little bit of research, and my best guess is that it was an Oerlikon GAI-BO1 model. It's a Swiss-made air defense weapon, consisting of an Oerlikon KAB 20mm cannon on a hand-traversed and elevated mounting. It makes sense that, if true, this is the kind of anti-aircraft gun that was seized for a few reasons. First, it's the only anti-aircraft gun used by the Mexican army- or at least it was in 2006. Second, the range for the GAI-BO1 lines up with the information in the article, although the rate of fire is off. Third, it's one of the smallest and lightest anti-aircraft guns in existence, weighing only 547 kilograms(1,203 pounds) - meaning it could ostensibly be mounted on a larger truck or van. That being said, it would be extremely obvious and unwieldy.
Speaking of obvious, the next question would be, what would a Mexican DTO be doing with an anti-aircraft gun? Anti-aircraft weapons have historically been used against low-flying aircraft, and were developed to counter the introduction of aircraft to battle in World War I. As planes have gotten faster and more maneuverable, anti-aircraft artillery, or AAA, has been mostly replaced with surface-to-air missiles. However, plenty of anti-aircraft systems are still in the arsenals of several countries. Given the range and power of these weapons, they're not practical for the typical needs of DTOs and their enforcers, who usually engage in some type of urban warfare. Also for this reason, you hear about seizures of the and DTO interest in .50-caliber Barrett sniper rifles, yet you don't hear much about their actual use. Would a DTO be interested in shooting down a small, slow-flying plane carrying Mexican government officials? Would they be interested in firing on Mexican army personnel in tanks or armored carriers? Would they be interested in assaulting a rival DTO leader's home with extremely heavy firepower so as not to leave anything undamaged? Yes, of course. However, reason for a DTO's possession of such a weapon may be as simple as the possession of a gold-plated handgun - just to say they have one.
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