Page 40 - Inside Mexico News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

>> reporter: the cartels even began organizing search and rescue teams and suddenly the videos made sense. drug smugglers hurling their stolen vehicles back into the rio grande were doing it for one reason. to protect their dope at all costs. >> all units we had a splash down. we had a plan is down in the river. >> they don't mind losing the truck into the river. at the end of the day if they can recover 2,000 pounds of narcotics with an estimated street value between 600 and 800,000 that's what they're going to do is protect that inventory. >> it's going under. suspect just about on my side. ...

Former intelligence official fred burton has been studying a turf war in mexico between two drug cartels. a former band of military guards called the zetas and the more traditional gulf coast cartel. >> what most people don't realize when you're looking at the border is that there are certain portions that are not controlled by the mexican government. and the area of falcon lake was directly controlled by the zetas, and this was a very strong smuggling corridor for them. >> reporter: so you believe this was mistaken identity? >> clearly, all evidence indicates that this was a case of mistaken ...

Newspaper attention still at viral levels, authorities in texas were trapped. they could dispatch all the boats and helicopters they wanted, but law enforcement in mexico was still in charge. and what happened next in mexico showed just how difficult getting any answers would be. >> one mexican detective did try to find out what happened to david hartley. but his head was severed from his body and his decapitated head delivered to the mexican police here. since then, little news. suspects, brothers who lived near the half church in mexico, old guerrero. it's unclear if he went looking for them...

Catch and adjudicate the killers in what is a lawless part of mexico? >> i really cannot answer that, but i can tell you this, based on their past record, i think they have a -- somewhat of a zero solvency rate and a zero conviction rate. >> reporter: there is one more piece of evidence. a small blood spot on the life jacket tiffany hartley wore the day she says her husband was shot. the blood is from her husband. sheriff gonzalez says a dna test confirms it, but even the dna match remains just one more piece of an unsolved puzzle. there is still no body, no jet ski. is tiffany hartley even te...

>> reporter: on falcon lake there has been no sign of david hartley's body, his jet ski, anything that could prove his wife's story, that her husband was shot to death by mexican drug smugglers. the beheading of the one mexican detective trying to solve the crime has dealt the hartleys another blow. you feel right now there's people in mexico maybe even police in mexico who won't say what happened to david. >> uh-huh, i do. >> reporter: because they're afraid. >> yes. if you have threats against your loved ones, if you don't know if they're going to come home, i mean, that's a fear that i can'...