BajaWarrior
Super Nomad
Posts: 2307
Registered: 9-27-2006
Location: Mission Bay, San Diego. Playa Hermosa, San Felipe.
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Mood: Anxious to get south
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Man on Jet Ski shot in Mexican waters below Texas
Search resumes for US man shot in Mexican waters
By PAUL J. WEBER (AP) – 8 hours ago
SAN ANTONIO — Texas officials on Friday renewed warnings about pirates marauding on a U.S.-Mexico border lake after a Colorado tourist was gunned down
in Mexican waters while his wife dodged bullets and raced her Jet Ski back to American soil.
Search teams combed the U.S. side of Falcon Lake for David Michael Hartley, 30, whose wife told police he was shot in the back of the head Thursday
after being ambushed by gunmen on boats.
The gunmen are suspected pirates who have turned Falcon Lake, a waterskiing and bass fishing hotspot down the border from Laredo, into uneasy waters
for fishermen and boaters. There have been at least five reported run-ins with pirates on the lake this year, though prior holdups had never been
deadly.
The Texas Department of Public Safety said Friday that Hartley was believed to be killed, but nearly 24 hours after the shooting, there still was no
word whether the oil industry worker had been found. U.S. Border Patrol spokesman Narcizo Ramos said he didn't know whether Mexican authorities were
searching their side.
The shooting led Texas public safety officials to again urge boaters to stay on the U.S. side of the 60-mile lake, five months after issuing its
initial advisory following three pirate attacks.
But state Rep. Aaron Pena, a south Texas lawmaker briefed on the pirates earlier this year, said it has become dangerous enough to stay off the lake
altogether.
"I wouldn't do it," Pena said. "When I go out there I have all the protection Texas can provide. But the average fisherman doesn't have that."
Pena said he has no doubts the pirates are working with Mexico's drug gangsters. The cartels that control the area wouldn't let the pirates operate
otherwise, he said.
While Hartley's fate remained unclear, Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez said 29-year-old Tiffany Hartley fears her husband is dead. She
circled back on her Jet Ski to rescue him but had to retreat when she heard bullets whizzing by.
Some campers along Falcon Lake had taken to arming themselves following the state's first warning in May. In one incident that month, state officials
said five armed men boarded a boat on the U.S. side of the boundary.
The pirates either use powerful AK-47s or AR-15s to threaten their victims, Texas public safety officials said. The agency believes the pirates use
local Mexican fishermen to operate the boats to get close to American fishermen.
Falcon Lake is a dammed section of the Rio Grande that straddles the border. The border is marked by 14 partially submerged concrete towers that mark
the Rio Grande's path before the lake was created in 1954.
According to Gonzalez, Tiffany Hartley told police the couple rode their Jet Skis for sightseeing and to take pictures of a famous church in Old
Guerrero. They were riding back when they saw the armed gunmen on the boats, and immediately began racing back to U.S. waters.
Tiffany Hartley told authorities her husband was shot in the back in the head; Cox said one of the boats may have crossed into U.S. waters briefly
while trying to run her down.
Cox said Tiffany Hartley estimated the shooting took place about five to six miles from the Texas shoreline where she parked and called for help.
In April, pirates robbed another group of boaters who also went to Old Guerrero to see the church. Cox said the most recent reported pirate sighting
had been Aug. 31, when boaters saw gunmen riding a small skiff with "Game Wardin" misspelled in duct tape on the side of the vessel.
Cox said it appeared the pirates were trying to imitate state game warden boats they have seen patrolling the lake.
Texas Gov. Rick Perry said the shooting underscores the need for the federal government to further secure the border.
"It's really become substantially worse in the last 18 months with the drug cartels having almost free rein," Perry said Friday in Austin. "This is
about our citizens', on both sides of the borders, safety."
Violence on the Mexican side of the lake has been climbing for several months, as a fractured partnership between the region's dominant Gulf Cartel
and its former enforcers, the Zetas, plunged many of the area's Mexican border cities into violence.
Associated Press Writers Kelley Shannon in Austin and Schuyler Dixon in Dal
Haven't had a bad trip yet....
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MrBillM
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 21656
Registered: 8-20-2003
Location: Out and About
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Mood: It's a Zip-a-Dee-Doo-Dah Day
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Those Jet-Skiers can be irritating, But
Killing them is a little over the top.
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mulegemichael
Super Nomad
Posts: 2310
Registered: 12-24-2007
Location: sequim,wa. and mulege
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Mood: up on step
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all a shame; falcon lake is one fabulous bass lake!
dyslexia is never having to say you\'re yrros.
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wessongroup
Platinum Nomad
Posts: 21152
Registered: 8-9-2009
Location: Mission Viejo
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Mood: Suicide Hot line ... please hold
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well, what ever Falcon was, is ...... going there now would be like taking a vacation to Pakistan... and wearing the crucifix and taking your wife in
shorts and halter top... sure one can do what ever they want .... have fun... but, don't call me or anyone else.. if you get thrown in jail, get the
crap beat out of you or killed....
Like in the movie "No Country for Old Men"... sure, go to where a drug deal has gone bad... and take the money..... WRONG!! (that's just me, though,
you do want you think is best for you and yours )
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Skeet/Loreto
Ultra Nomad
Posts: 4709
Registered: 9-2-2003
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I would strongly suggest that you give the Texas Rangers instructions to take care of the Problem.
Draw them out and then Shoot the Sobs no matter what side of the border they are on.!!!
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sanquintinsince73
Super Nomad
Posts: 1494
Registered: 6-8-2010
Location: Los Angeles, CA
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I've been reading about this problem for quite some time now. What the hell does it take for our Govt. to protect us. They've known about this problem
for some time now. Take a few of them pirates out and they'll know we mean business. Who cares if Mexico lodges a formal protest....enough is enough.
Too bad we can't resuscitate President Reagan.....se acabo el problema....A.S.A.P.
[Edited on 10-3-2010 by sanquintinsince73]
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