suspicions based on some of her behaviors. tonight, a cnn special report. murder in mexico: what happened at falcon lake. reporter: it s late afternoon in mccallen, texas. air operations are about to begin. there are some areas west of mcallen along the southwest border that are completely out of control, in my opinion. reporter: captain stacy holland and his team from the texas department of public safety are trying to stop drug smugglers from crossing from mexico into the u.s. right there, right there. one guy s gotten out. one guy s gotten out into that house.
reporter: but there was some unfinished business. one last adventure david had long talked about, but never got around to. he had heard of a church partially submerged in falcon lake on the mexican side in an abandoned village called old guerrero. perfect for a couple who loved their jet skis and loved adventure. i m just like, okay. let s go see it. reporter: had they asked local law enforcement would have warned them about pirates on the lake. had they asked, captain stacy holland would have told them not to go. we don t recommend going into mexico on the side of the lake, but it s perfectly well within your rights, but we just want you to be aware that that threat is out there, and it s very real, and you should take it seriously. reporter: it was a thursday and david hartley called home. they were excited to go have one last big ride on their jet
the way of life of mexico. and the politics i think there s too many connections between u.s. and mexico, too much money going back and forth. reporter: connections you mean in a criminal way? in a money way. i think it s all money. reporter: in the air over border country, captain stacy holland says the financial stakes are so high for the drug cartels, that money takes precedence over everything else. so what the states faced with and the nation really is an aggressive narcotics smuggling ring, or cartels that their interest lies in their inventory. that s what they re going to protect. and they re going to do whatever means necessary to protect their inventory. reporter: in the case of david hartley, that includes the cartel inflicting its own
reporter: robert speedy colette who owns a fishing lodge here admits he s been stopped by drug cartel members but he also bristles at news reports of piracy and danger. these reports have decimated his business on the lake, which he insists is safe, as long as you know the rules. it happened to me. i didn t run. they boarded. they found out i wasn t a threat, and i was released. never robbed. never took a penny from me. they did not my wallet was in my glove box. i had $1,100 in my wallet. my clients were pretty wealthy people. plenty ever mon plenty of money on them. nothing ever happened to them. reporter: in the air over falcon lake, stacy holland says the texas department of public safety was already advising boaters on falcon lake to be very careful. just a warning to let people know that this threat is out there and it s very real and that we ve had documented cases of pirating. so it s mainly for situational
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