|
| This undated photo from a wanted poster released by the U.S. Marshals Service shows Pedro Flores, left, and his twin brother, Margarito Flores. The brothers are scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday, Jan, 27, 2015, at federal court in Chicago on drug trafficking charges. The Flores twins cut deals to buy tons of narcotics from Joaquin "El Chapo” Guzman, the head of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel in the 2000s, and later cooperated with U.S. investigators. |
CHICAGO (AP)
-- In the underworld of illegal drug trafficking, identical twins Pedro
and Margarito Flores rose from middling Chicago dealers to partners of
Mexico's most notorious cartel lord, eventually building a nearly $2
billion franchise that spanned much of North America.
Anyone
convicted of trafficking a fraction as much cocaine and heroin could
normally expect a life sentence.
But the twins can enter their
sentencing hearing Tuesday confident of receiving far less. Because they
spilled secrets that led to the indictments of Joaquin "El Chapo"
Guzman, a half-dozen of his lieutenants and about 40 lower-level
traffickers, prosecutors are asking for a remarkably lenient term -
around 10 years.
If credited for six years in protective custody, the pair could go free within a few years.
Guzman
"ran the one of the biggest trafficking organizations in the last 100
years, and these brothers were crucial in helping to bring him and his
people to justice," said Jack Riley, former head of the Drug Enforcement
Administration office in Chicago and now the agency's No. 3 in
Washington. "I don't think you can get bigger than that."
Details
of the twins' story have been kept under seal for years, but recently
opened federal government files, and an Associated Press review of
documents in related cases, have lifted some of the secrecy surrounding
the two, offering a fuller narrative of their journey from flamboyant
teen traffickers to associates of Guzman, who was captured last year by
Mexican authorities.
American authorities
portray the twins as among the most valuable drug traffickers who ever
became informants. Chicago criminal lawyer Joe Lopez, who represented
several clients indicted on evidence from the twins, put it more
starkly: "They're some of the most significant rats in U.S. history."
Drug-world
figures weighed in on their importance, too, in their own way. After
word spread in mid-2009 that the twins had turned informants, their
father was kidnapped, according to government documents. A note left for
the twins on the windshield of his abandoned car read, "Shut up or we
are going to send you his head." He is presumed dead.
Prosecutors
cited his death and the fact that the twins - as well as their mother,
wives and children - will live in fear for the rest of their lives as
one reason for leniency. They also want to use the lighter sentence as
an enticement to urge other cartel associates to cooperate.
The
threat of retaliation by cartel members looms over the case. Since
becoming informants, the 33-year-old siblings have never appeared in
public. Because of the constant danger, the name of their defense
attorney has also been kept secret. And it's unclear how the brothers
will be protected in prison or after their release.
The
speed with which the 5-foot-4 twins ascended the drug-world hierarchy
had something to do with location. Chicago's Little Village
neighborhood, where they grew up, is surrounded by major rail lines and
highways. It's an aspiring trafficker's dream - a transportation hub
within a city that's a transportation hub to the nation.
As
dealers in their teens, they had a reputation for being flashy but
savvy, said Lopez, who had some clients from the same neighborhood. The
twins' fondness for bling was illustrated by a list of items agents said
they would forfeit. It included more than $400,000 in jewelry.
Only
after the brothers fled Chicago around 2004 for Mexico, apparently
fearing arrest following their indictment in Milwaukee, did their
trafficking careers soar.
It's not clear how
they first made contact with the Sinaloa cartel, but by mid-2005 they
were summoned by Guzman himself, according to government filings. Flown
to an airstrip in Sinaloa, they were taken to a secret mountain compound
to hammer out drug deals with the kingpin.
From
2004 on, prosecutors say, the brothers ran their entire U.S. operation
from a Mexican ranch, issuing orders by phone. Their network stretched
to from New York, Detroit and Washington, D.C., to Los Angeles and
Vancouver, Canada.
Strict rules governed the
drug shipments. Guzman's people got the drugs across the U.S.-Mexico
border - sometimes via tunnels - and were responsible until the packages
were transferred to Flores associates in the U.S. If the drugs were
lost somewhere between that point and Chicago, the brothers would be on
the hook for the full cost.
Court documents
say the twins approached U.S. authorities on their own in the summer of
2008, offering to cooperate. The papers do not explain why, though it
happened during bloody conflicts between cartels, and the twins may have
feared they would soon fall victim.
Still, they continued to do business with the cartel, now with the aim of gathering evidence.
According
to court documents, they met Guzman again in his mountain compound in
October 2008, when he made an ominous request of Margarito Flores: Could
he obtain rocket and grenade launchers? They would use them, he was
told, to attack a U.S. or Mexican government office to send the message
that cartel suspects were not to be extradited.
The pressure on the twins was building.
Then
something triggered U.S. agents' concern. On Nov. 30, 2008, they gave
the brothers two hours' notice to get out of Mexico. They flew to
Chicago with little but the clothing they wore.
But the brothers' scheming did not stop immediately.
In
Chicago, the two sought to squirrel away millions in ill-gotten gains,
toying with the idea of burying some of the money, filings say. While in
custody, they also managed to purchase a $100,000 Bentley as a gift for
Pedro's wife. They had to give it up when agents learned what they had
done.
