FORMER MEXICO DRUG CZAR LIVED DANGEROUS LIFE

McALLEN - At the height of his power in Mexico, Guillermo Gonzalez
Calderoni lived in two worlds, at once aiding and persecuting that nation's
most notorious drug kingpins, making friends of U.S. Drug Enforcement
Administration and FBI agents assigned to Mexico and making enemies of
high-ranking Mexican government officials whom he publicly accused of being
on the payrolls of the drug lords.

In 1992, the former head of Mexico's anti-drug agency fled his homeland,
fearing he would be killed there. After successfully fighting an
extradition attempt by the Mexican government, Calderoni settled into the
comfortable life of a businessman in McAllen, but his past may have caught
up with him Wednesday morning.

Calderoni was killed with a single gunshot to the head outside a lawyer's
office after getting into his Mercedes-Benz.

Former DEA agent and director of the El Paso intelligence center Phil
Jordan considered Calderoni a friend and expressed shock at hearing he had
been gunned down.

Jordan said he met Calderoni in the 1970s when both were hunting for one of
the first recognized drug kingpins, Pedro Avilez Perez.

Back then, Calderoni had a reputation for being clearly on the law
enforcement side, Jordan said. Calderoni and his men were dubbed
"untouchables."

But pressure by the established drug organizations eventually had Calderoni
working both sides of the law.

"If you want to stay in law enforcement over there, you have to play by the
corruption rules," Jordan said. "If you stay in law enforcement and don't
play by the established rules, then you're going to get killed. You don't
have too many choices."

Jordan said that even knowing Calderoni was aiding drug organizations
headed by Calderoni's childhood friend Juan Garcia Abrego and Amado
Carrillo Fuentes, two of Mexico's most infamous drug kingpins, he earned
the respect of DEA agents by aiding them with the investigation into the
torture and murder of DEA Agent Enrique Camarena.

"He helped us a lot with Camarena, otherwise the cover-up by the Mexican
government would have been very difficult to penetrate," Jordan said.
"Calderoni, with all his faults, had a sense of camaraderie with drug
agents He was still helping us by eliminating the competition in Mexico.

"He was definitely an agent's agent."

Calderoni is credited with killing Pablo Acosta, another drug kingpin,
reportedly after receiving $1 million from Amado Carillo Fuentes, Acosta's
partner. Calderoni also captured drug lord Miguel Felix Gallardo in 1989.

"I made him turn over," Calderoni said of the Gallardo arrest in a PBS
interview. "I put the AK-47 in his mouth and made him stand up slowly. When
I took the gun away, he offered me - I can't remember whether it was $5 or
$6 million - in exchange for his release."

Calderoni wrote that he arrested Gallardo under pressure from the Mexican
government that wanted to show the United States proof of its anti-drug
efforts in order to receive re-certification as a preferred nation.

By 1994, Calderoni had fled Mexico. But the Mexican government wanted him
back, accusing him of torturing drug suspects during a probe into a drug
smuggling ring.

Calderoni's officers were said to have yanked the teeth of one suspect with
pliers and put a plastic bag over the head of another.

Calderoni denied the allegations.

During an extradition hearing, a U.S. federal magistrate ruled the
statements made by witnesses had been fabricated and denied Mexico's request.

His attorneys had argued that if Calderoni were extradited he would be killed.

Jordan said he also believed that the allegations of torture were
fabricated by the Mexican government to frame Calderoni. He said the
Mexican government would have executed Calderoni because he knew too much
about the depths of corruption in Mexico that reached every level of
government, including the president.

"If they can get to him and execute him, then he can't embarrass the
government," Jordan said.

Jordan said he last spoke to Calderoni about two months ago. The two
discussed writing a book together. After living a life straight out of the
movies, Calderoni said he felt safe in the Rio Grande Valley.

"He knew about the threats, that people were looking for him," Jordan said.
"He was confident that no one would try to do it here. I think he felt safe
in the U.S.

"I told him he was crazy to stay on the border. I'm still stunned."