Mexican gangsters used a convoy of vehicles – including a truck with homemade armour-plating – to ram their way into a prison before opening fire at guards and rescuing nine inmates. Several other vehicles were also set on fire in the spectacular plot targeting the jail in the central city of Tula. The escapees include José Artemio Maldonado Mejía, alias “El Michoacano”, the leader of a local crime organisation known as Pueblos Unidos. One prison guard and one police officer were injured in the attack early on Wednesday, according to Hidalgo state authorities. Local media reported that the gang also detonated several car bombs, but authorities said they were still investigating how the vehicles caught fire. The use of car bombs has been rare in Mexico, but vehicles are sometimes commandeered and torched to hinder police and military responses. “An armed group burst into the prison aboard several vehicles, and it is worth noting that near the prison, two vehicles were burned as part of the criminal group’s operation, as a distraction,” said Simón Vargas, Hidalgo state interior secretary. Soldiers, police and national guard launched a massive manhunt. Tula is the site of a massive Pemex refinery and criminal groups have increasingly tapped petroleum pipelines to siphon off gasoline – which is later fenced to motorists or sold to petrol stations – often with threats for failing to purchase. Pueblos Unidos, led by El Michoacano, is thought to be one of the main groups behind petrol theft in Hidalgo state. Mexican criminal groups have often raided prisons over the past 15 years, bursting into the facilities or impersonating security forces to free inmates. The attack came as Mexico marks the 15th anniversary of then-president Felipe Calderón’s declaration of a militarized war on drug cartels, after which thousands of troops were deployed on the streets. The current president Andrés Manuel López Obrador, was an ardent critic of Calderón’s use of the military, but has increasingly turned to the armed forces for public security roles. López Obrador ran on the slogan “hugs, not bullets”, but Mexico’s homicide rate has stayed stubbornly high and large swaths of the country remain under drug cartel control. The cartels are increasingly deploying weapons such as explosives dropped from drones and launching brazen mobilisations to rescue captured colleagues.