12 SUSPECTED ZETAS, MEXICAN MARINE, KILLED IN SHOOTOUT ON FALCON LAKE

A dozen suspected Zetas drug cartel members and a Mexican marine died
in a battle Sunday on an island surrounded by Falcon Lake, within
sight of the U.S.-Mexico border, officials said.

The Mexican naval secretariat confirmed the shootout at a Zeta
encampment on an island on the reservoir used by the Zetas to stage
marijuana loads to be transported by boat into the United States. The
island is located less than two miles northeast of Nueva Ciudad
Guerrero, Tamps., across the border from Falcon Dam.

The bloody fight ensued on Mother's Day when marines were patrolling
the area in boats when they found the camp, officials said in a
statement released Monday.

Upon seeing the marines, Zeta gunmen opened fire. A dozen cartel
members were killed in the battle. One marine died, as well.

Officials noted no arrests after the shootout, but said they seized
19 firearms, including a Barrett .50-caliber sniper rifle and a 5.56
mm machine gun. Marines also seized gun magazines, ammunition,
protective vests and other field equipment that was transferred to Reynosa.

Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez said he learned of the
deadly shootout when member of the local media contacted him late
Monday morning. Had Mexican officials alerted their U.S. counterparts
to the shootout, Gonzalez's deputies would have been able "to react
accordingly," "

What worries me is that we were in an area that could have been
dangerous at that time and we have people on the lake," the sheriff
said. "And with it being Mother's Day, it's worse. There's definitely
some lack of communication among the national governments, the state
governments and local governments - everybody."

Gonzalez is set to testify before the U.S. House Homeland Security
Oversight, Investigations and Management Subcommittee on Wednesday in
Washington. McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez is scheduled to
testify there on law enforcement efforts along the border, as well.

The shootout capped a busy week along the northern Tamaulipas border
for Mexican marines, who killed two suspected cartel gunmen Saturday
afternoon in Valle Hermoso, about 25 miles south of Brownsville.
Marines also seized weapons and a vehicle Thursday in Matamoros, and
rescued a kidnap victim Wednesday in Camargo, across the border from
Rio Grande City.

Falcon Lake gained international notoriety last fall after McAllen
residents David Hartley and Tiffany Young-Hartley apparently fell
under attack by suspected drug cartel members. The couple traveled
across the lake on personal watercraft to Guerrero Viejo, a city
abandoned and submerged by the reservoir when the Rio Grande was
dammed in the 1950s.

Young-Hartley told authorities her husband died from a gunshot wound
to the head as they attempted to flee gunmen on boat Sept. 30, 2010.
Hartley's body was never recovered.

No arrests have been made in the case. Young-Hartley has since
relocated closer to relatives in Colorado.

In the days after Hartley's apparent slaying, Rolando Flores, the
Tamaulipas state investigator assigned to the case, was found
decapitated in Miguel Aleman, across the Rio Grande from Roma.

Gonzalez said the description of where Sunday's shootout occurred is
near where Young-Hartley said they fell under attack last fall.

The Zetas have a reputation of using brutal tactics on their victims,
with Mexican investigators identifying the drug trafficking
organization as responsible for the slaying of 183 people found in
dozens of mass graves outside San Fernando, Tamps., about 80 miles
south of Brownsville. Many of those victims are believed to be
commercial bus passengers kidnapped while traveling through the area.

U.S. and Mexican investigators have said the Zetas were responsible
for the February slaying of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement
special agent Jaime Zapata in San Luis Potosi state. Zapata, a
Brownsville native, was travelling with ICE agent Victor Avila on a
rural highway when they fell under attack.

The Zetas have been embroiled in battles for territory across
northeastern Mexico with the Gulf Cartel since February 2010. The
once-allied drug smuggling organizations broke ties, triggering a
turf war that continues across Tamaulipas state and Northeast Mexico.

About 35,000 people have been killed in cartel violence across Mexico
since late 2006.