After Shorty's death, Pablo Acosta took over as the supreme drug lord. In the late 1980's, Colombian cocaine became prevalent in La Junta de los Rios. Acosta himself became addicted to crack cocaine and loved to swig on El Presidente brandy and smoke crack-laced Marlboro cigarettes. Up until then, it was rare for a trafficker in such a position to fall victim of the drugs he was trafficking. At one point, the scar-faced Mexican padrino controlled crime along a 250-mile stretch of the U.S.-Mexico border, and smuggled a staggering 60 tons of cocaine per year into the United States. Acosta was known to brag about murders, smuggling, payoffs, as well as charitable works. But as many in his circle took up the same addiction to cocaine, the complex system of drug trade efficiency began to falter. His struggles to defend his expanding empire against rivals mounted. Pablo Acosta ended up dying on April 24, 1987 after an ambush by FBI agents. The fearsome Comandante Calderoni, the Mexican federal police commander who killed Acosta, later defected to the U.S., gaining asylum after telling all to the FBI about the Mexican presidential family and their involvement in drug trafficking.