Texas Fishermen Shot on Border by Suspected Cartel Gunmen

ROMA, Texas — Three fishermen riding a boat in Texas waters were shot by suspected cartel gunmen from the Mexican side of the border. One was killed while two others sustained injuries.

Authorities responded to a call of shots fired in the rural community of Fronton, Starr County Sheriff’s Office Major Carlos Delgado said to Breitbart Texas. Local, state, and federal authorities found two fishermen who had been injured and a third killed by gunfire. The survivors are expected to recover.

According to preliminary witness statements, the male victims had been fishing when a group of suspected gunmen began firing from the Mexican side for unknown reasons, Delgado said. 

The area where the shooting took place is not far from the spot where a U.S. Border Patrol agent and a Texas State Trooper were shot in November 2016, Breitbart Texas reported at the time. In that case, law enforcement officials were stuck by gunfire from an apparent battle between Mexican law enforcement and cartel members. The trooper was shot in the hip area while the agent was shot in the chest but was saved by his body armor and a loaded ammunition magazine.

Just days after the shooting of the two lawmen, cartel gunmen murdered another Texas fisherman west of that region in the area known as Falcon Lake in Zapata County. Falcon Lake is an area commonly used by Los Zetas to smuggle large quantities of marijuana and migrants into Texas. The area is immediately south of Zapata and Starr Counties. In that case, two men were fishing when a another boat approached them from the Mexican side, leading to a confrontation and the two victims being shot at. One of the men died from his wounds while the second fisherman has since recovered. The gunmen returned to Mexico after that shooting.

Falcon Lake is the same area where in 2015 Texas State Troopers on gunboats captured a top Los Zetas commander who was trying to sneak into Texas, Breitbart Texas reported at the time. In that case, authorities arrested Jose Manuel “Z-31″ or “El Borrado” Saldivar Farias, a regional leader for the cartel.

Falcon Lake was also the scene where Los Zetas gunmen murdered David Hartley in 2010 while he and his wife were jet-skiing, Breitbart Texas previously reported. Hartley and wife Tiffany had been riding in the lake until an apparent failed kidnapping led to David being struck by gunfire, while Tiffany managed to escape.

Ildefonso Ortiz is an award winning journalist with Breitbart Texas. He co-founded the Cartel Chronicles project with Brandon Darby and Stephen K. Bannon.  You can follow him on Twitter and on Facebook.