Mexican pirates prey on American anglers

15 commentsby William Booth - May. 30, 2010 12:00 AM
Washington Post
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ZAPATA, Tex. - Falcon Lake is famous for its bass and for the obsession of the fishermen who come from all over Texas to stalk them. Now this remote reservoir that straddles the international boundary is known for something else: pirates.

In the past month, crews of outlaws in a small armada of banged-up skiffs and high-powered bass boats launched from the Mexican shore have ambushed bass anglers from the Texas side. The buccaneers have struck in Mexican waters but within sight of the Texas shore.


Dressed in black, the pirates brandish automatic weapons and board the anglers' boats. They demand weapons or drugs from their captives, but finding neither, seem satisfied with taking $400 or $500, according to law-enforcement officials and victims' accounts.

The idea that criminals are preying on American anglers is raising already-high temperatures along the border. Answering calls for help, President Barack Obama last week ordered 1,200 National Guard troops to the region.

The pirates claim to be police, but instead are brigands from the drug cartel Los Zetas. The Zetas are on a rampage of killing and extortion along the Mexican border as they fight gun and grenade battles against the military and the rival Gulf Cartel.

"Within the last month, with all the feuding going on over there, the dope smuggling has dropped off and it is starving them. This water is Zeta central. They controlled the whole lake. They distributed everything. Now, they're desperate and diversifying," said Jose Gonzalez, the second in command of the Border Patrol's Zapata station, which operates an around-the-clock maritime patrol.

At least three armed robberies have been reported in Mexican waters. The Texas Department of Public Safety put out a warning for people to stay on the U.S. side. On Memorial Day weekend, when 200 bass boats would usually be in town, only two dozen were seen at county ramps on Friday afternoon.

One group of pirates was savvy enough to demand the memory chip from an angler's camera, lest they be identified. Another fisherman told authorities that armed men came roaring toward him. "I saw 'em, and I saw they were machine guns. They were that close, they were 15 yards away from me," San Antonio bass chaser Richard Drake told a local television station. "I was scared."

Last week, Border Patrol agents tried to follow a Mexican boat filled with men wearing ski masks, but it was too fast for the agents and entered Mexican waters, where U.S. law enforcement is forbidden.

Olga Juliana Elizondo, the mayor of Nueva Guerrero, Mexico, said ranchers are harassed on their land, motorboats have disappeared, vehicles have been stolen and tourists have fled. "We hope this ends soon," she said.

The International Falcon Reservoir was born in the early 1950s, when engineers erected a dam on the Rio Grande, flooding the banks and inundating towns on both sides. The 98,960-surface-acre impoundment stretches 60 miles and provides for irrigation, power, flood control and recreation in the area.

Out on the water with the U.S. Border Patrol, roaring right down the international boundary line, but careful never to cross into Mexico, Gonzalez and a crew pointed out spot after spot where they have intercepted tons of marijuana crossing the lake.

The Border Patrol seized 18,000 pounds of marijuana in the lake region last year, worth about $14 million at $800 a pound; they'll likely confiscate even more this year.

"But man, they are so good at countersurveillance," Gonzalez said, describing the lake as kind of a Wild West on the water. "We're telling folks that, right now, Mexico is not safe. Don't cross, because we can't go over and help you. It's just an imaginary line, but it's a line I can't cross," said Jake Cawthon, a Texas game warden. He said that anyone fishing the Mexican side has "got to have one hand on their fishing pole and the other on their boat keys, ready to haul back home."



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