Mexican whistleblower facing wrath of U.S. justice system

That's the issue before a federal judge in San Antonio, Texas, where Cordero finds himself behind bars, denied bond and charged with laundering millions of dollars in illicit drug money.

Cordero, the former head of a high-profile Mexican anti-narcotics squad, also found himself on the wrong side of the law in the mid-1990s after blowing the whistle on corruption within the ranks of Mexican law enforcement.

Cordero, who in 1995 served as the deputy director of Mexico's National Institute to Combat Drugs (INCD), claimed at the time that drug-traffickers had gotten their hooks into Mexican law enforcement on a grand scale. After resigning from his post in the wake of going public with his allegations, Cordero was arrested by Mexican police on bribery and narco-trafficking charges. He was later convicted and spent more than a year in prison before winning his release on an appeal.

Cordero claimed he had been framed for exposing the rampant law-enforcement corruption in Mexico. Mexican officials countered that Cordero went public with his corruption charges only after he learned he was under investigation.

Now Cordero is back in the hot seat, this time on the U.S. side of the border. He was indicted with little fanfare last November on four counts of money laundering and has been sitting in jail in San Antonio ever since. The U.S. government claims to have gotten wise to Cordero's alleged money-laundering scheme through the use of an informant and an undercover DEA agent who posed as a drug trafficker, according to news reports. However, Cynthia Orr, Cordero's San Antonio-based attorney, is still wondering where the beef is in the government's case.

She claims the government has so far failed to provide any information on the alleged "informant."

"We're still trying to get evidence (from the government) that we don't have but need for this case," Orr says.

On another note, she points out that it is interesting what is not being introduced by the government as evidence in the case.

"The wiretap the government did to obtain evidence on my client is not being used in the case because there is no incriminating information on it," Orr claims.

Cordero, who at the time of his arrest operated private businesses in Mexico and San Antonio, has pled not guilty to the charges against him, according to court records. Orr points out that Cordero had been trying to raise financing for one of those businesses, called Tampico Fiber.

When asked if an interview could be arranged with Cordero, Orr replied by saying she would relay the request to Cordero. However, Orr indicated that it was unlikely, at this point, that an interview would be granted.

"We haven't completed discovery," she explained.

Stay tuned.....