[1] A turf war between rival drug cartels for control of the lake began in March 2010 and has led to a series of armed robberies and shooting incidents.

All of the attacks were credited to the Los Zetas cartel and occurred primarily on the Mexican side of the reservoir but within sight of the Texas coast.

The violence in and around Reynosa in March caused both civilians and Zeta cartel members to leave their homes and take refuge at Falcon Lake.

Texas Department of Public Safety officials issued a warning for American citizens to stay on the United States side of the water and to be on the lookout for vessels used by Mexican fishermen, boats with a large prow, a small outboard motor without a cowling and no identification numbers on the hull.

[1][5][6] According to Tiffany's report to the Texas police, men in two small boats approached and fired on her and her husband with automatic weapons in an attempt to steal their jet skis.

The detective was one of many officers assigned to investigating the Hartley incident and he was allegedly killed only days after delivering a document to a local television station which named two of the suspected pirates.

Gary Freeman, a political scientist at the University of Texas, stated that "the beheading has such strong resonance with Islamic fundamentalism that it raises the specter of groups in Mexico being as fanatical and as bloodthirsty as Osama bin Laden and his gang.

[7] On May 8, 2011, Mexican Naval Infantry patrolling the lake discovered a camp of Zetas on an island believed to be used for smuggling marijuana into the United States by speedboat.