Fishing Trip Runs Into Mexico’s Nightmare

PORTLAND, Ore. (CN) - Mexico's violence has spilled into court in Oregon, where a man sued a fishing tour company that sold him a trip to Sinaloa, to go after trophy bass. There, he says, two men assaulted and robbed him, shot him in the face with an AK-47, and "left [him] to die in the bottom of the fishing boat."

Plaintiff Dike Dame demands $4.8 million from the Trophy Bass Lodge, DMF Inc. dba Fishin' Expeditions, and their agent David Fields.

Dame says he placed reservations for a four-day, five-night fishing trip to the defendants' Trophy Bass Lodge, on Lake Huites, in the highlands of Sinaloa state/ During his trip there, in November 2009, Dame says, while fishing with a Trophy Bass Lodge guide in a Trophy Bass Lodge boat, he "was assaulted by two men, one armed with an AK-47 assault rifle. During the assault, plaintiff was shot in the face and shoulder, and robbed ... and the gunman left plaintiff to die in the bottom of the fishing boat."

Dame says the shooting left him with a broken collarbone and arm, nearly severed his tongue, shot off part of his jaw and knocked out several teeth.

Sinaloa state is home to Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel. The mountains are a center of marijuana and opium poppy farms.

Dame says Fishin' Expeditions did not warn him about that. He says, "If plaintiff had been appropriately advised of the dangerousness and lawlessness existing in the state of Sinaloa generally, and in the region of Lake Huites particularly, he would not have traveled to the Trophy Bass Lodge for a fishing vacation."

He demands damages for negligence, medical expenses and pain and suffering. He is represented by Elden Rosenthal in Multnomah County Court.

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