Piracy on Falcon Lake

Piracy on Falcon Lake
	Part of the Mexican drug war
	; United States Coast Guardsmen patrolling Falcon Lake, October 2010.
Date	2010 – 2011
Location	Falcon Lake, Rio Grande, Mexico, United States26.5588°N 99.1647°W
Result	status quo
Belligerents
Mexico ; United States	Los Zetas
Commanders and leaders
Unknown	Unknown
Casualties and losses
Mexico:; 1 soldier killed and 1 investigator killed	12 killed
	Civilian casualties: 1 killed

Piracy on Falcon Lake refers to an increase in crime at the border between the United States and Mexico on Falcon Lake. The lake is a 60-mile (97 km) long reservoir of the Rio Grande that was constructed in 1954 and is a known drug smuggling route.

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 so-called pirates operate "fleets" of small boats designed to seize fishermen and smuggle drugs.

While the events have been referred to colloquially as piracy, all the waters of Falcon Lake are considered either US or Mexican territorial waters and therefore crime there is not technically piracy under Article 101 of the UN Convention on the Law of the Sea.

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