“Bring Me The Head Of" - Claims Swirl In Pirate Murder

Ciudad Miguel Aleman – When unknown parties delivered the severed head of lead investigator Rolando Armando de Flores y Villegas to an army garrison, it meant only one thing.

Los Zetas, a tough band of sicarios who originally deserted from the Mexican Special Forces to work for much higher pay serving the Gulf Cartel, will not tolerate any government interference from either side of the border in their ongoing campaign of terror to wrest control of this lucrative smuggling route through Tamaulipas to the McAllen area of the valley.

Naturally, sensational speculation has swelled to a fever pitch at this development, particularly from outspoken U.S. Representative Ted Poe, (R-Dist. 2), a long-time Harris County criminal district judge who unseated 4-term incumbent Democrat Nick Lampson in 2004 with a 55.5 percent majority – a whopping 31,793 votes.

“The Mexican drug cartels just sent a message to the White House that the United States no longer controls the border,” said Congressman Poe in a press release posted on his Congressional website.

In true insurgent fashion, Los Zetas often decapitate their victims to send a chilling message to their friends, colleagues, families – and most of all, the government. In fact, they found the body of another lead prosecutor investigating the mass murder of almost a hundred illegal workers captured by the Zetas on their way to Texas at a ranch about 35 miles southwest of Nuevo Laredo only two months ago. Obviously, the message remains the same. Investigate the crimes of Los Zetas at your own peril. Even journalists have quit writing about their depredations, since more than 30 of them have perished in the 4-year “war on drugs” sponsored with U.S. Armed Forces aid and training of Mexican soldiers and police.

In this case, when a couple ventured to Old Guerrero Church, a small village on the Mexican side of Falcon Lake near Zapata and only a few miles from the provincial capital, Ciudad Miguel Aleman, on jet-skis, their intention was to take pictures of the partially submerged church.

Two boatloads of “pirates” brandishing automatic assault weapons started to chase them. When a bullet struck David Hartley in the back of the head, his wife Tiffany dove into the water to try to rescue him. She was unable to pull his inert form on board her jet-ski. Then bullets began to whiz around her ears and churn the water to a froth.

She had to make the painful decision to leave him behind and flee for her life.

Immediately, speculation began on both sides of the border that either, 1) she shot her husband; 2) the couple were involved in some kind of high level drug dealings with the rival Gulf Cartel and the Zetas retaliated; 3) Mr. Hartley is still alive and is either a hostage of the attackers, or they are concealing his body somewhere in their territory.

This is in spite of the fact that witnesses saw Mrs. Hartley fleeing from the pirates and she immediately called 9-1-1 to report his murder.

In fact, U.S. Representative Henry Cuellar and Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez have both come to her defense on that account.

The one element that stands out in the continuing dialogue is that no one seriously believes the Mexican law enforcement officials are really looking for his body – especially the Mexican cops.

They have named two brothers who live near Old Guerrero Church as chief suspects in the murder. They are believed to have participated in serial murders of similar type, numerous armed robberies of bass fishermen and other tourist types, and setting several arson fires.

Congressman Poe, whose district stretches from the Louisiana border to the northeast suburbs of Houston at Kingwood, has made numerous allegations in speeches delivered from the well of the House of Representatives that the U.S. Government has abandoned all pretense of defending the border from drug gangsters.

One thing for sure, the murderous members of Los Zetas stand four square to see that no one but gangsters and their servants – sometimes kidnapped or captured from the ranks of illegal immigrants struggling to cross the border – are allowed into this no man's land outlaw area where the fundamental rules have been suspended.

Their mission: transporting lucrative illicit items such as drugs, sex slaves and anything else with a high cash value into the American market, and then returning duffel bags of freshly laundered cash back into Mexico.

Only these may come and go freely and unmolested from this picturesque area with its crystal-clear lake, a meandering 25-mile long reservoir that offers some of the best bass fishing in the nation.