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This was posted on another site by a friend of mine. Several people had questions about what happened. Well, I am the one it happened to. So, if you have a question about what happened fire away. Here is the story.

In three years of renting a house in Mexico and traveling there monthly I never had any problems. 2003 to 2006 must have been off years for banditos. This last trip made up for it in triplicate.

I am going to make this as short as possible. On the way down to Mulege my wife and I stopped for the night to camp at El Paballon RV park, on 17th of February. When we woke up the next morning at 5:30, there were two Mexican guys acting like they were looking at some old whale bones at the parks entrance. We could tell they were checking us out. My only thought was that we were lucky we woke up so early. We broke camp and were on the road only a few minutes later. We had only taken out the necessities, as we were just camping for the night. We were driving a late model Toyota Tacoma extra cab. As the road turns up into the hills that go over to El Rosario I notice in my rear view mirror a truck rounding the corner behind us that was going way too fast. I immediately said a commented about it to my wife, and recalled a story I had read on the internet where some guys tried to stop an American on the Toll road outside of TJ. We decided to speed up and try and stay ahead of them. No matter how fast I went they were still catching up with us. At that point I decided that there was no way I was going to let them pass. I pushed my truck as hard as I could, and then a little bit more. They were right on our bumper now. At the exit of every curve, they would try and come along side of us, but I would gun it and our truck had more pick up than theirs. Thank God. I had more of a load than they did though, so they would catch up on the curves. My wife was looking back and could see the passenger had a rifle between his legs, and that they were the same two guys from that morning in the camp ground. We were in a race for our lives. Finally we could see the top of the mesa where the army check point is. I floored it and we started to pull away from the banditos. At which point they turned around. We told the army guys what had just happened, but they were uninterested.
This was a total set up. The care taker of the place heard me tell the people travelling south with us, all our plans. They went on to Rosario to get a room for the night while we camped. She overheard the time we were leaving, the direction, and took a good look at all the stuff in the back of our truck. The two guys were definitely waiting for us in the morning.
On the way north we saw the same mid 80’s model red Toyota parked off the highway at the entrance to the road out to El Paballon RV park. No doubt they were scouting for their next victim. Be safe out there, and be very careful if you camp at this spot.

I am in San Quintin right now and will forward your story to a close contact I have at the Federal Police Station on the south side of town.

Thanks for the info. For nearly 20 years we've been camping at Pabellon regularly on our trips South, even before it was Pabellon.

For the last 2 or 3 years I can't explain why, but I've been very uncomfortable there. Last year we decided we would stop overnighting altogether. This confirms our fears. Glad you were aware enough to escape any harm.

I read this story earlier in Baja Nomad and the lengthy thread it started. At the time, I was in the states and planning to return to Baja Sur. Obviously, it caused me concern. Highway 1 is challenging enough without being pursued by banditos. Anyway, I just wanted to say that in all my travels up and down the Baja, I had never seen such a huge military presence as on that trip from El Rosario to Guerro Negro in April. I know there were rumors of multiple carjackings in that area, so this is the government's response?

When I spoke with the Federales about this they told me that they were aware of the Hwy 1 bandidos but they also told me that they were primarily pre-screened targets, not tourists and south of El Rosario. He told me that they weren't just a single group but apparently 2 or 3 and that 2 of the groups had been arrested and that they were looking for a few others. They weren't sure if they were part of one of the groups arrested or on their own.

I shared with him the story of the guys staking out folks at El Pabellon and he told me that some guys in a similar vehicle had been caught a few days before with weapons and drugs by Federales on a traffic stop down near Los Pinos packing plant. Hard to say if it was the same guys.

He also mentioned the increased military presence and that it was primarily to catch drugs/arms runners but that the side benefit would be that these road pirates would move elsewhere.

He liked the advice of driving in groups or just ahead of trucks/buses. Also asked me to pass along that if you see any strange behavior to always write down a vehicle description and to get the license plates if possible. They are following up on these reports.

Talked to some friends on Friday who live on a ranch down south of El Rosario. They tell me that talk on the street is that they have arrested the banditos. They weren't aware of any recent reports of carjacking events happening.

That is good news.