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Archive Available at DG Networks (Select Graphic &
Register/Log In to Listen) Panel:
Congressman
Steve King Ranking Republican Member of the Subcommittee on
Immigration, Zapata County Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez & Tiffany
Young-Hartley
Radio Streaming Broadcast:
May 3, 2012 (Original Broadcast October 2011)
Homeland Security "Murder on Falcon Lake"
In recent years, Mexico's drug cartels
have waged increasingly violent battles with one another as well as with the Mexican government. Upon taking office in December
2006, Mexican President Felipe Calderon deployed thousands of federal troops in an aggressive crackdown on drug-related violence.
Yet death tolls continue to rise. There were more than 2,500 drug-related deaths in 2007, and the yearly toll rose to more
than 4,000 by the end of 2008. Murders and street gun battles are only part of a more entrenched problem that includes corrupt
police forces and a lackluster judiciary. Experts say recent police and judicial reforms are a step in the right direction,
but such reforms will take time to implement. Meanwhile, increased and sustained cooperation from the United States is seen
as necessary to stem drug-related violence. About 90 percent of the cocaine that enters the United States is trafficked
through Mexico, according to the State Department's 2008 International Narcotics Control Strategy Report. Mexico's extensive
cocaine trade is controlled by cartels based in border areas and along the southeast coast. Three groups--the Sinaloa Cartel,
the Gulf Cartel, and the Tijuana Cartel--have waged an increasingly violent turf war over key trafficking routes and "plazas"
or border crossing areas.
Tiffany Young-Hartley
Tiffany Hartley and her husband,
David, may have been mistaken for rival gang members when David was killed on his jet ski at Falcon Lake within 100 yards
of United States territory. It appears most likely that apart from the value of the jet skis themselves, that the incident
was poor timing and placed the devoted couple directly in the path of a Mexican Drug Cartel. A senior U.S. official with
knowledge of the border and of Tiffany Hartley's account says the current theory is that the Hartleys ran into three boatloads
of armed men who were less pirates than halcones — lookouts for drug runners. The cartel "ground soldiers,"
as the official called them, were young and poorly trained, and the Hartleys ran afoul of them. The federal official,
who spoke on background, said there have been two other incidents in the past six months in which two Americans were slain
in the same Mexican state, Tamaulipas. They tried to run highway roadblocks manned by drug mafia gunmen. One man was traveling
with his family; the other was a mountain biker. In a chilling development last week, a Mexican state investigator
assigned to the case, Rolando Flores, was killed and decapitated, his head delivered in a suitcase to a nearby army garrison. "We
were told that the search was canceled not too much after the death of the law enforcement officer there in Mexico,"
said Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez, Zapata County, Texas, the lead agency in the case. He says the message in the decapitation
was: "This is our territory. Stay out." He says the message in the decapitation was "This is our territory.
Stay out." The case has caught the attention of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who called the investigator's
killing "absolute barbarity." A spokesman for the Tamaulipas state attorney general's office said in a telephone
interview they can't be sure the investigator's slaying is connected to the Hartley case. Nevertheless, after the investigator's
killing, the search for Hartley's body and the Hartley homicide investigation were suspended indefinitely. On Monday,
Tiffany Hartley urged Mexican authorities to keep looking for the body before she left Texas for her home in Colorado. "I
don't want to leave without my husband," she said. "That's what it comes down to."
Congressman Steve King Ranking Member of the Subcommittee
on Immigration
Steve King grew up in a law enforcement
family in Storm Lake, Iowa. He attended Denison Community High School, where he met Marilyn Kelly, whom he married in 1972.
They have lived in Kiron for 32 years and are members of St. Martin’s Church in Odebolt. Steve and Marilyn have
three grown sons and five grandchildren. King studied math and science at Northwest Missouri State University. He
started King Construction in 1975 and built the business up from one bulldozer. He brings valuable knowledge to Congress as
an agribusinessman and a small business owner for 28 years. King’s oldest son now runs the construction business. He
served in the Iowa State Senate for six years where he assumed roles as Chairman of the State Government Committee and Vice
Chairman of the Oversight Budget Subcommittee. He was a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, Judiciary Committee,
Business and Labor Committee and the Commerce Committees. He worked in the State Senate to successfully eliminate the inheritance
tax, enforce workplace drug testing, enforce parenting rights, including parental notification of abortion, pass tax cuts
for working Iowans, and pass the law that made English the official language in Iowa. King was elected to Congress in 2002
to represent Iowa’s new fifth congressional district. He brings the concerns and ideas from people of the fifth district
with him to work on the Agriculture Committee. He has long been dedicated to adding value as close to the corn stalk and bean
stubble as possible, as many times as possible. The Fifth District ranks first in the nation for hogs and pigs and is one
of the most productive areas in the nation for renewable fuels. King’s very first bill in Congress was an expansion
of a tax credit to small ethanol and biodiesel producers. His language was included in the Energy Users Act of 2005, which
President George W. Bush signed into law. As 97% of Iowa’s businesses are small business, King received a special waiver
to serve on the House Small Business Committee so he could work to restrict government regulations that impede the growth
of business and jobs. King is also a member of the House Judiciary Committee, where he sits on the Constitution Subcommittee
and is the top Republican on the Immigration Subcommittee. He believes the Constitution means what it says and that it should
be read in light of the intent of our founding fathers. King is never caught without a copy of the Constitution in his coat
pocket. King also chairs the Conservative Opportunity Society, a powerful and legendary House caucus that is best known for
energizing Republicans to regain the majority of the House of Representatives in 1994.
Sheriff Sigifredo Gonzalez - Zapata County Sheriff
The mission of the Zapata County Sheriff's
Office is to maintain social order and provide professional law enforcement services to citizens in the community, including,
but not limited to, victims of crime, the elderly, and the youth, within prescribed ethical, budgetary, and constitutional
constraints. This office strives to enforce the law and maintain order in a fair and impartial manner, recognizing the need
for justice, and consistent appearance of justice. The Zapata County Sheriff's Office recognizes that no law enforcement
agency can operate at its maximum potential without supportive input from the citizens it serves. This Office actively solicits
and encourages the cooperation of all citizens to reduce and limit the opportunities for crime, and to assist in bringing
to justice those that break the law. The mission of the Zapata County Jails is to protect the community at large by the
housing of persons charged with various crimes against the penal statutes. While such persons are so confined it is the
duty of the administration to safeguard the rights and secure the health and safety and well being of all such persons and
staff. The goal of the county jails is to abide by the percepts of the law and the courts, with human dignity ever in
mind, striving to be able to release each person back into society in no worse condition, physically, mentally, or emotionally,
than when he or she was received.
Pat O' Brien: Veteran Journalist
Biography
Pat O’Brien - has worked in the Broadcast
& Advertising industries for over 40-years. O’Brien began his career in TV and radio news as an investigative journalist.
O’Brien recently worked for FRN, providing news to 55-radio stations in Florida. Pat has worked for two of the top three
advertising agencies in Florida managing 100’s of advertising account budgets over his career. O’Brien is credited
for creating Wendy’s “Where’s the Beef?” in the mid-‘80’s. O’Brien owned and operated
a 25M dollar advertising agency in Ft. Lauderdale, FL, pioneered all night local TV in Miami in the early 70’s. Mr.
O’Brien has hosted “Talk” radio programs in Wilmington, NC, Daytona, Orlando and Ft Lauderdale/Miami, FL.
O’Brien has built a reputation as an innovative entrepreneur. In 2006 Mr. O'Brien formed AirTech Solutions4U
a Sub-Chapter "S" 90% Disabled Vietnam Veteran Owned Florida Corporation. The company has trained a network of 200
indoor air quality professionals throughout the United States. The firm employs various methods of creating safe "allergen
free" indoor environments while greatly reducing MRSA, AIDS, E. coli, Salmonella, and H1N1 "Swine Flu" and
over 100 other viruses, bacteria, and molds.
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