Mexican authorities discover 24 drug cartel surveillance cameras in a town on the Arizona border

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexican authorities said Friday they have detected and seized 24 drug cartel surveillance cameras attached to telephone and light posts in the border city of San Luis Rio Colorado.

The city on the border with Arizona has suffered for years from violence between drug cartels fighting for control of the border crossing, where they can smuggle drugs.

Prosecutors in the northern state of Sonora said the cameras were placed there by “falcons,” the name often used in Mexico for drug cartel lookouts that want to monitor the movements of soldiers and police.

Army troops removed the devices and photos suggested they were ordinary porch-style cameras wrapped in duct tape. They were found in three different neighborhoods, and some were even found attached to palm trees.

Located across from Yuma, Arizona, San Luis Rio Colorado is best known as a border town where Americans can go for cheap prescriptions and dental work. But the country is increasingly affected by violence by drug cartels.

It is not the first border city where cartels have installed their own surveillance networks.

In 2015, there was a drug cartel in the northern state of Tamaulipas used at least 39 surveillance cameras to monitor the comings and goings of authorities in the town of Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas.