Page 48 - Inside Mexico News Today : Breaking News, Live Updates & Top Stories | Vimarsana

This area. are you surprised or are you hardened to the fact that most of america doesn't realize this is going on? >> you know, it does amaze me, and maybe it's because i'm exposed to it so much working on the southwestern border, but we're in a war. we're in an engagement with an enemy that's like no other enemy we ever faced before. you have to combat these people with some of the same tactics that they employ on you. if you asked me ten years ago would we be doing some of the tact ticks and missions we're doing today, i would have said, absolutely not. >> reporter: since 2004, the state de...

And -- 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, cartel, their interest lies in their inventory. that's what they're going to...

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 areas mcallen, 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.

>> reporter: but word began to leak out even from mexico that her story was being doubted. >> so she kept on coming this way. >> reporter: the zapata county sheriff, siggy gonzalez was the first american law official to speak with her. >> it seems something made up. seemed like a story out of the comic books. >> it's hard, because -- >> reporter: but tiffany hartley is insistent on telling her version of what happened. here with cnn's anderson cooper. >> you were meeting with mexican investigators for much of today. did you get the feeling that they believed you or they didn't believe your sto...

>> 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't imagine. i don't want to imagine. that's why it's like, this has to stop. >> reporter: without any clear answers from mexico, the hartleys have turned to intelligence sources north of the border who can try to explain why the couple was targeted. 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 th...