Alleged drug lord charged in Atlanta was an all-American kid

Edgar Valdez Villarreal, charged in Atlanta with smuggling millions of dollars worth of cocaine into the United States, is a former high school football star whose family is confounded by his life as a notorious Mexican drug kingpin.

There were no signs from his upbringing in Laredo, Texas, that Villareal, 37, would choose a life of crime. He was from a close-knit family, raised in a tidy brick home with siblings who went to college and started businesses, The New York Times reports.

“He chose that road,” his older brother, Abel Valdez Jr., told the Times “We are a good family.”

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