Bodies of Australian surfers found in Sinaloa

Here are some maps that might help. One shows the toll road and the location of the toll booths (key upper right) appears there could be 3 booths – casetas.

If you have driven this route in the last could years you will know there is a new bypass that is the straight blue line that goes sort of diagonal – there is a caseta when you enter this section of road.

Seems there is another caseta to far before that.

My computer map rough estimate is it is about 8 miles from the toll road to Navolato. If Navolato is a “town” by Spanish law it could cover a great deal of area. So easy to hijack a vehicle on 15D and get it somewhere near Navolato.

We do not know the exact location where the vehicle was found or where the original crime occurred so hard to say how the van got from point A to point B without more details.

I do not want to guess at any of this - enough speculation already. But based on the following quotes from the provided web addresses it would appear at least one of the crooks told what happened as the authorities seem to have info only someone who was there would know - unless authorities are making it up.

As far as how they were caught - unfortunately in this case and with past cases it seems when crime happens to tourists they send in the A-Team who are specialists at getting results - and at getting suspects to talk. But that would be speculation on my part.

I think at least one of the articles I read said there was an accomplice at the toll booth watching for possible victims. He called ahead to the waiting phony cops.

http://www.borderlandbeat.com/2015/12/sinaloa-arrests-made-in-australian.html#more

According to prosecutors, a lookout for the gang spotted the van before it got to Navolato and advised his accomplices it was a likely target.

The thieves apparently stopped the van after it passed a toll booth, as the two Australians drove south through Sinaloa toward Guadalajara, Mexico's second largest city.

Prosecutors said the thieves, traveling in an SUV, forced the van to stop. Coleman purportedly struggled with the thieves, and one of them shot Coleman, but he didn't die immediately. The van was then driven to a rural road, where both victims were apparently shot to death and one member of the gang lit the van on fire.


http://news.yahoo.com/mexico-arrests-three-suspected-murders-australian-surfers-224845152.html

The van belonging to Dean Lucas and Adam Coleman was stopped on November 21 by a gang driving a car that flashed police-like lights on a road in Sinaloa, said chief state prosecutor Marco Antonio Higuera Gomez.

The suspects shot a long-haired man in the face when he resisted the robbery, Higuera told reporters.

The robbers killed the second man, drove the vehicle to another location and "set fire to the van with two bodies inside," Higuera said.

- Dressed as cops -

Municipal and federal police uniforms were seized from the suspects, who wore them to commit highway robberies, the prosecutor said. One of the gang members worked as a lookout, notifying accomplices when he saw vehicles that could be robbed.

Orion wrote:
So just to confirm then, this van was ambushed on the main toll highway, 15D? Is there any more information on how this gang was actually found, or was it a case of rounding up the 'Usual Suspects'?

Maybe, maybe not, they may have gone off it to find a place to crash for the rest of the night. It was after midnight. Seems odd to happen on a toll road, but maybe it was on a section of it that is not toll.

Will we ever know the details? Probably no one was there that will ever share.

So sad.

Unfortunate incidents are extremely unfortunate, but fall under, "Sh.t happens," if you don't try hard to avoid the sh..

Apologies to the moderator.

Navolato's mayor, Miguel Calderon, described the region as a "Bermuda Triangle" of crimes that include robberies, murders and kidnappings.

"These people are part of a criminal group dedicated to vehicle thefts, drug dealing and with a history of committing murders," Higuera said.

Three Suspects

So just to confirm then, this van was ambushed on the main toll highway, 15D? Is there any more information on how this gang was actually found, or was it a case of rounding up the 'Usual Suspects'?

Shouldn't we just call this an unfortunate incident? With 255 mass murder attacks in the a neighboring country in the last year, no one seems too concerned to stop rving there. Why should we worry and make a big deal out of one story this year that happened in Mexico?

Follow basic driving rules like those listed above. If toll roads make you feel safer than use them.

Who on this board is young enough to be able see well for night time driving anyway?

You should read the complete articles. The deceased were caught on security camera footage at two toll booths, about an hour and a half apart. The criminals then drove the van to where it and the bodies were burned.

Even the toll roads aren't safe at night.

Navalota is NOWHERE NEAR Mex 15-D and to top it off the victims were south of Navalota on SIN 4, a very remote roadway. I traveled this potholed nightmare in the eighties and vowed I would never do so again. I came across an overturned old pickup that was filled to the brim with drunk Yaqui indians. As I passed they threw empty beer bottles at me. Nasty tempers.

Every Australian knows not to venture down to the wharf area of Sydney after nightfall. I cannot fathom just how ignorant or arrogant (remember, the guy decided to fight multiple armed scumbags) a few people can be. Like a three legged antelope on the Serengeti with an attitude.

What a waste