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A Fishing Paradise Gains a Deadly Reputation
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/08/us/08pirate.html?_r=2

[snips]

The shooting was the latest in a string of attacks by pirates on the lake that began on April 30. The gangs carry AK-47s and sometimes claim to be Mexican federal police or American game wardens. They have sometimes hijacked high-prowed boats favored by Mexican fishermen and used them to chase down Americans in bass boats, stealing their money at gunpoint.

But Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez of Zapata County, on the Texas side of the lake, has said that Mrs. Hartley’s story is credible and that the assault is in keeping with other recent robberies, some of which happened in the same part of the lake.

On April 30, for example, two boats carrying five tourists who wanted photographs of the Guerrero church were robbed at gunpoint by four heavily tattooed men in a fishing boat who identified themselves as “federales.” They demanded cash and even asked, “Where are the drugs?”

A week later, on May 6, three fishermen were robbed at gunpoint near Salado Island. On May 16, another group of boaters was robbed, again by armed men in a fishing boat on the United States side of the reservoir.

More recently, a gang of pirates in a small boat, with “Game Wardin” spelled out in duct tape, tried to stop a Texas fisherman, the police said. The Texan figured the misspelled word meant they were not really game wardens and outran them, the police said.

The governor has also staunchly defended Mrs. Hartley against anyone who doubts her account, saying he finds such theories “really reprehensible.”