Thomas A. Constantine, the former tough-talking chief of the DEA, died May 3 at a hospice in Pinehurst, N.C., the Washington Post reports.
He was 76.
Constantine. who died after getting a staph infection, was chosen as the head of the DEA by President Bill Clinton in 1994 after the former cop and investigator led successful crackdowns on drugs in New York.
The n0-nonsense leader of the DEA launched aggressive campaigns to knock down some of the drug operations in Mexico and Central America. But he quickly found out that the well-connected and well-financed drug cartels were ruthless, determined and capable of influencing police and politicians.
Constantine was born in Buffalo on Dec. 23, 1938 and began his law enforcement in 1960 as a sheriff’s deputy.
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