The border lake where cartels are 'killing' unwitting American tourists: Fisherman sh
The border lake where cartels are 'killing' unwitting American tourists: Fisherman shot dead may have stumbled into Zeta drug run on notorious lake, six years after jet skier was slaughtered
*Oscar Garza was gunned down while fishing with his friend on Falcon Lake
*Reservoir sits on the border of Texas and shore of Nuevo Leon in Mexico
*Mexican side is home to notorious drug cartel Zeta - linked to several murders
*Garza was shot to death in his boat by a gang of men while his friend escaped
*Echoes murder of American tourist David Hartley who was killed in front of his wife while they were jet-skiing in 2010
*Lead Mexican investigator into the murder was found decapitated later that year
*Cartel leader Salvador Alfonso Martinez Escobedo was arrested linked to murder
By Hannah Parry For Dailymail.com
PUBLISHED: 00:02 EST, 27 December 2016 | UPDATED: 00:11 EST, 27 December 2016
A Texas fisherman has been shot to death on the same lake on the border with Mexico, where an American tourist was murdered by a drugs cartel six years ago.
Oscar Garza was gunned down on Falcon Lake, which sits on the border of Texas and the shore of Nuevo Leon in Mexico - the home of a notorious drugs cartel.
The 26-year-old was fishing with his friend Javier Gonzalez, 21, when they were confronted by another boat, authorities say. The attackers began shooting at the boat, killing Garza instantly.
Gonzalez was able to escape in the boat before leaping into the reservoir to try and hide from the gunmen. He survived and was taken to hospital where he was treated for hypothermia.
The shooting has echoes of the murder of another American citizen on the same lake six years ago.
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Texas fisherman Oscar Garza (top) has been shot to death on the same lake on the border with Mexico, where American tourist David Hartley (bottom) was murdered six years ago
Tiffany Hartley, 29, and her husband David, 30, had been jet-skiing on the lake when they were ambushed. David Hartley was shot in the head by the gang and died at the scene.
His wife was forced to abandon her dying husband and flee for her life. David's body was never found.
'Here we go again,' David's widow Tiffany Hartley told CBS after news of the latest fatal shooting. 'Another shooting has happened.
'My heart goes out to them because I know exactly what they are going through,' Hartley said.
The investigation was a dealt a blow in October of 2010 when Mexico's lead investigator, Rolando Flores, was decapitated.
Flores's severed head was delivered in a suitcase to a military post near the border with Texas.
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Oscar Garza was gunned down on Falcon Lake, which sits on the border of Texas and the shore of Nuevo Leon in Mexico - the home of a notorious drugs cartel
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The 26-year-old was fishing with his friend Javier Gonzalez, 21, when they were confronted by another boat, authorities say. The attackers began shooting at the boat, killing Garza (upper and lower) instantly
Two years after the brutal murders, police rounded up Salvador Alfonso Martinez Escobedo, a Zetas cartel leader is known as 'Commander Squirrel', believed to be behind the killings.
Escobedo is also linked to numerous crimes, such as the escape of 151 prisoners in 2010 from a jail in the city of Nuevo Laredo and the flight of 131 prisoners in the city of Piedras Negras in 2012.
The Mexican Navy said in a statement: 'Squirrel is credited with being the mastermind of the deaths of 72 undocumented migrants in San Fernando.
'[He] is the alleged perpetrator of the narco graves found in Tamaulipas state, with more than 200 bodies and the execution of more than 50 people by his own hand in different parts of the republic, [as well as] the murder of David Hartley, an American citizen killed at Falcon Dam on September 30, 2010.'
It is not yet clear whether the Zetas cartel is behind the latest murder.
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David Hartley, left, was shot and killed as he was exploring Falcon Lake with his wife Tiffany, right in 2010
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Hartley said she could not pull her husband on to her jet ski and had to leave him lying face down in the water as she fled the gunshots
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Tiffany Hartley and family members laid a wreath near the site of her husband's murder in this 2010 photo
But footage from a Border Patrol aerostat should show whether the shooting happened on the Mexican or U.S. side of the lake, and where the gunmen went after the incident.
Falcon Lake is a popular attraction, but Hartley says it's also a vital passageway for the cartel.
'That's how they get their drugs over to the U.S., so anyone who is in their way — they're going to kill them, ' said Hartley.
'That's what we were doing. We were just jet-skiing and enjoying the lake.'
Hartley said that she has never got her husband's body back after his murder. Without closure, she said she feels 'stuck'.
'It's very emotional and it's very draining and it's hard to continue. I can't really move forward,' she said.
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Hartley (pictured in May, 2011) said she was not surprised by news of the latest shooting
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Couple: David and Tiffany Hartley were high school sweethearts, and had been married for eight years when tragedy struck in 2010
Border control, Zapata County Sheriff's department and Texas rangers are working together to investigate the killing.
Authorities say Falcon Lake has been the scene of drug-related violence for years.
Just last week, Mexican officials seized more than 6,000 pounds of marijuana on the lake.
Border Patrol agents had contacted Mexican authorities after they saw men on the Mexican bank loading bundles onto a boat.
Mexican police then seized the drugs.
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