MONTERREY, Mexico (Reuters) – Armed men likely linked to drug gangs blocked highways with trucks and buses in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey yesterday in an apparent attempt to hamper army operations near the US border.

Gunmen pulled truck and bus drivers out of their vehicles in the wealthy business city and used them to set up blockades on major four-lane highways, sometimes slashing tires to make it harder to tow them away, police and motorists said.

Monterrey Mayor Fernando Larrazabal suggested drug trafficking cartels were setting up the roadblocks as a way to derail anti-drug operations by security forces.

“The blockades that we are seeing … could be actions by people linked to organized crime to block avenues and delay federal, state or municipal forces in some operations,” he told the Milenio TV network.

Police used tow trucks to unblock some roads, but armed men were quick to set up others, causing long tailbacks.

“I saw how a group of men with guns forced a water truck driver out of his vehicle and then turned the truck across the lanes to stop all the traffic,” one motorist told local radio, without giving his name.