Bodies of Australian surfers found in Sinaloa

[darbone85737]

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3341085/Inside-Mexican-city-Sinaloa-known-Cemetery-cartels-rule-murders-rife.html?ito=social-facebook

[MEXICOWANDERER]

As an aside, Navaloto is a Municipio. Municipios in Mexico are similar to USA counties or in the case of Lousiana, Parishes. They can be huge. For instance the Municipio Ensenada in Baja California covers the area, north of Ensenada, all the way east to San Felipe, and down to the state line at Guerrero Negro.

News accounts can be tricky. An incident reported HERMOSILLO SONORA can actually have taken place 125 miles distant in the remote Sierras.

POLICIA MUNICIAL are like county sheriff deputies. Entering or leaving a town when you see a sign INICIO or TERMINO TRAMO de CARGO de SCT it means the beginning or the end of federal jurisdiction of the (Federal) highway. "End of the CHARGE of responsibility of the Secretaria de Comuniaciones Y Transportes". The jurisdiction of the PFP the federal highway patrol begins and ends at these signs and the beginning and end of transito (traffic) control from the POLICIA MUNICIPIO takes over. On non federal highways the policia municipio has control. In town the transitos (city cops) takes over.

Beto, told me, on the toll roads there is a single PFP cruiser for many miles so one can not make a return pass in hours. Crooks wait in the toll booth rest areas with either FRS radios or cell phones, time the cop's passage then a time window opens for them to operate hassle free.

During the daylight spontaneous patrols by the PFP, the SSP, Policia Municipios, and Military (plus Green Angels) make robbery a hell of a lot more risky. Petty crooks have to pay PISO to the local organized crime group, most of them don't and if they get caught and go to prison, and they haven't paid PISO their life is forfeit.

Petty crooks are torn between terror at having the feds move in on a murder or leaving the victims to identify them. In Mexico, ****RHAPE**** is considered a crime as bad as if nor worse than murder. That question enters my curiosity as to why the male victim resisted. We'll never know.

And my headlight bulbs will last a l-o-n-g time down here.

[MEXICOWANDERER]

Canadian Rainbirds,

Thank you for pointing out my error/mistake about where the carjacking robbery took place.

But realize this......!

In most of Mexico 99% of the patrolling cops and military are home or in barracks after sunset.

There is nothing and no one (civilian) is going to stop on a freakin' 10 lane superhighway to help a victim in a most apparent carjacking or robbery. Coming back from Zihuatanejo in Jesus' S-10 at nine PM (late cardiologist appointment) northbound on Mex 200, we came across three southbound cars and trucks. One was really cockeyed obviously forced off the road. four men were beating the living **** out of 2 guys (all were nationals) One was holding a rifle (not military type).

One SSP cop told me in Guerrero, if a call for help comes in, the time it takes to respond is a lot more than 15-minutes. If a bank burglar alarm goes off, or a gasolinera yells "robbery" the response time is a lot faster.

The young McMILLAN boy, the offroad racer was outraged several years ago when "We were forced over to the side of the Tijuana/Ensenada toll road in sight of the US border. The robbers forced us to drive up into the hills, and robbed us of everything we had, including a 50,000 dollar race car and trailer and a 40,000 dollar pickup truck"

He quipped "I've been coming to Mexico, for blah-blah number of years, I've raced and know....blah....blah....blah....I will never go back....blah..."

The time? 0300

A Mexican friend was northbound on Mex 1D at midnight. At Rosarito Beach, a drunk driver swerved into her one ton Ford van. She counted 32-minutes until an ambulance arrived. The driver was put into prison. He called his dad in Dana point CA. and managed to settle all hospital and repair bills.

Maybe you're brave enough to drive down here at night. I'm not. The best of luck to you.

And do not fight five armed men at midnight.

[Wm_Elliot]

" If we go to a party in Monterrey I never drink and drive and we most likely stay in town."
Sounds like you have not fully assimilated 😉

[qtla9111]

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

Chris: I like that one!! We have driven at night in Mexico but only out of necessity. I was tired and we could not even find a Pemex. We finally pulled into a large truck stop. Parked and went to bed. In the AM I did my walk around and the left rear tire was inches away from a piece of rebar sticking out of the concrete. Didn't your mother always say that nothing good happens at night!

Moisheh

Well, you know that was said tongue in cheek but yes, my parents did tell me that and I still believe it. It's hard to drag me anywhere in any country at night. If we go to a party in Monterrey I never drink and drive and we most likely stay in town. Guess I'm a wimp!

With the trailer in tow, no way.

[Wm_Elliot]

I drive at night in Mexico and Sinaloa. We've done it frequently and lots of people do judging from the traffic I see when I'm driving at night. Cars, trucks and buses run at night so I assume that while there may be an increased risk, but maybe not an unacceptable risk.
We used to leave Durango at 2AM so we could beat the truck traffic on 40 West to Villa Union. We would reach El Salto by sunup and missed most of the truck traffic. The only close call was a burro that was in the traffic lane but I could squeeze by him.
Probably the biggest difference was the lack of reflective center lines or the fog line, but recently I've noticed its getting better.

[Cloud_Dancer]

briansue wrote:
Please do not take this wrong. I am not attempting to throw the US under the bus. Just a statement of fact. Not trying to compare apples to oranges or anything else. For informational purposes only. I have posted this before. According to the FBI and the US Dept of Justice reports there are about 38,000 carjackings in the US each year on average. By their definition they are not talking about truck hijacking or car theft but specifically a car taken from its occupants by force - often using a weapon - weapon is often a gun. I forget the number of injuries or deaths in these statistics. It can all be found online but I am not going to search for it again. These things can happen to anyone just about anywhere. Their are gangs in the US too.

But, but, but it has been mentioned several times that we should not live in fear. And, that we should not be fearful of RVing in Mexico, etc. Just going by what you've posted above (including statistics), I'm going to go ahead and take it as living, and RVing, in the USA is as dangerous and perhaps even more dangerous than in Mexico. SOooo, this would imply that I'm either naive, OR do NOT live in fear...:B
Actually, I prefer my assessment. One should simply be informed, and take whatever precautions are necessary to allow one to venture into today's world in comfort. IOW do whatever you want,.....which is what I do. And now, everyone's happy.
BTW I'm young enough to be able to see good enough to drive at night, no problems in that regard in 75 years. Except, I finally concluded that night-time was invented for sleeping...:B

[briansue]

Please do not take this wrong. I am not attempting to throw the US under the bus. Just a statement of fact. Not trying to compare apples to oranges or anything else. For informational purposes only. I have posted this before. According to the FBI and the US Dept of Justice reports there are about 38,000 carjackings in the US each year on average. By their definition they are not talking about truck hijacking or car theft but specifically a car taken from its occupants by force - often using a weapon - weapon is often a gun. I forget the number of injuries or deaths in these statistics. It can all be found online but I am not going to search for it again. These things can happen to anyone just about anywhere. Their are gangs in the US too.

[moisheh]

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

Chris: I like that one!! We have driven at night in Mexico but only out of necessity. I was tired and we could not even find a Pemex. We finally pulled into a large truck stop. Parked and went to bed. In the AM I did my walk around and the left rear tire was inches away from a piece of rebar sticking out of the concrete. Didn't your mother always say that nothing good happens at night!

Moisheh

[Tequila]

I have only done it once. Last year driving just my truck from Laredo to guadlajar where I had taken it to have some repairs done I could not get done in Mexico. I had noted a no tell motel northbound but with border delays i was about 45 min short of it before dark. It made me nervous but there was a lot of semi traffic, I tucked myself bewtween 2 of them.

[iguana07]

This is just terrible! Possibly could have been avoided by not traveling at night.
But it is not an isolated acurence. Some time ago I think I posted a similar situation out of Mazatlan Toll both operator tipped the waiting bad guys to parents and family of a friend of mine. They were Mexican Americans going to visit their family in Guad. They were taken to an isolated place robbed and threatened To their surprise they were not the only victims there. Other paisanos were held up and all were released at daybreak Our friends family left the hotel in Mazatlan at 5 AM still dark no one was hurt but all were threatened that their Mexican families would be in danger if they reported to authorities.
Do no drive in the dark!!

[briansue]

[briansue]

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.

[briansue]

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.

[Tequila]

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.