Car may be lead in killing
Sedan in Harlingen might have been used in death of cartel buster
02/07/2003
HARLINGEN, Texas - Police on Thursday found an abandoned gray sedan matching the description of the getaway vehicle in the assassination of Guillermo Gonzalez Calderoni, Mexico's former top drug enforcer.
The 1993 Chrysler with Louisiana plates was found before dawn, parked in a church lot about a mile from the isolated attorneys' office parking lot where the shooting occurred Wednesday in broad daylight.
Investigators said that the car's identity numbers appeared to have been tampered with and that the car may have come from Mexico.
Sgt. Joel Morales said the vehicle was the biggest lead yet in the slaying of Mr. Calderoni, who fled Mexico a decade ago after an illustrious albeit shady cartel-busting career.
At least one witness provided a vague description of two suspects, one of whom walked up to the silver Mercedes that Mr. Calderoni was driving and fired point-blank through the driver's side window. A 9 mm casing was recovered from the Mercedes.
Mr. Calderoni, 54, was no stranger to the underworlds he toppled, and newspapers on both sides of the border blared details of a career that peaked with the takeouts of drug lords Angel Felix Gallardo and Pablo Acosta, then soured with charges by the Mexican government that he tortured suspects in custody and took bribes from Gulf cartel kingpin Juan Garcia Abrego.
In broadcast interviews, he boasted of his wealth of land, cattle and real estate before becoming a police officer and said he joined the police for the challenge and was soon making so many seizures that it was getting boring.
Despite the wealth of apparent enemies and the point-blank nature of the shooting, McAllen Police Chief Victor Rodriguez said it was premature to call the death a "hit."
"We do not know enough about this case yet to try to guess at what motivated this killing," he said. "Like in any case, especially a murder case, if you can figure out a motive you can figure out more or less a responsible party."
After Mexico was unable to extradite him in 1994, Mr. Calderoni fell into the fabric of Rio Grande Valley border trade, launching a series of businesses. One firm in his name shipped petroleum byproducts into Mexico; another transported used clothing by the tankerload.
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