Jan. 28--Two brothers from Chicago's West Side who infiltrated the top echelons of the notorious Sinaloa cartel while working undercover for U.S. authorities were each sentenced Tuesday to 14 years in prison for smuggling at least 71 tons of cocaine and heroin.
Calling them the "most significant drug dealers" he'd ever sentenced in his 20 years on the bench, U.S. District Chief Judge Ruben Castillo said he agreed with giving Pedro and Margarito Flores a significant break given the certain death they had faced if Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman or his cartel henchmen had exposed their undercover work.
"You and your family will always have to look over your shoulder," Castillo said as the brothers sat side by side at the defense table in beige jail garb, both nervously tapping their feet. "Anytime you start your car, you're going to be wondering, is that car going to start or is it going to explode?"
Later at a news conference, U.S. Attorney Zachary Fardon and other officials announced a new round of indictments against the Sinaloa cartel, including new charges against Guzman's son, Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar, and three Chicago-area men accused of helping the cartel launder millions of dollars in drug proceeds.
In all, Fardon said, the brothers' cooperation has helped authorites charge 62 defendants and seize 11 tons of cocaine, more than 500 pounds of methamphetamines and about 170 pounds of heroin.
"They were the Chicago hub of the Sinaloa cartel, and they pumped literally tons of ... cocaine into the city," Fardon said.
The sentencing hearing, which took place amid heavy security that included a bomb-sniffing dog and metal detectors outside Castillo's courtroom, marked the first court appearance for the 33-year-old twin brothers since they began cooperating six years ago.
Each brother stood before the bench and issued an apology. Reading from a piece of paper he unfolded from his back pocket, Margarito Flores said in a choked-up voice that he was sorry for his "life of crime" and for putting his family in harm's way.
"I'm ashamed, I'm embarrassed, I'm regretful," he said.
His brother followed him at the lectern, telling the judge he was thankful for the opportunity to not have to spend the rest of his life in prison.
"I am before you ready to take full responsibility for my life, for all the drug trafficking," Pedro Flores said.
Prosecutors had asked Castillo for as little as 10 years in prison because of the brothers' unprecedented cooperation. Their undercover work led to indictments of Guzman, the Sinaloa cartel boss, his top leaders and dozens of other drug wholesalers and middlemen from Chicago to Mexico. Ordinarily they would have faced life sentences for as much narcotics and money as they moved -- nearly $2 billion in cash.
But Castillo said he was tacking on extra time because their cooperation, while extraordinary, was "not perfect." The judge noted that the brothers had allowed a 600-plus-pound shipment of heroin arranged by Sinaloa lieutenant Alfredo Vasquez-Hernandez to be delivered in Chicago under the nose of the government.
With the twins having already served more than six years in custody since surrendering to authorities in 2008, they could be freed from prison in about six more years.
Both twins sported buzz cuts and appeared much older than their mug shots that federal authorities had released when the brothers were fugitives nearly a decade ago. Born and raised in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood, the brothers have been held in secret locations for more than six years. Their immediate family members were given new identities and set up with $300,000 to pay for living expenses for the foreseeable future.
The concerns over possible attempts at retribution extend to the brothers' two Chicago attorneys, who appeared in court without their names being entered for the record for safety reasons.
The danger was real. Shortly after word got out that the brothers were in the custody of the Drug Enforcement Administration, their father, Margarito Flores Sr., returned to Mexico against his sons' wishes and despite stern warnings from their government handlers, according to prosecutors.
Within days, the father was kidnapped and presumed to be murdered, the filing said. A note found at the scene of the kidnapping said his sons were next.
Some of the brothers' double-dealing was the stuff of movies. The Flores brothers met with cartel leaders in mountaintop compounds, captured conversations with Guzman's lieutenants with a voice recorder hidden in a coat pocket and even helped prosecutors by cutting deals with a rival faction of the cartel that would have meant certain death if discovered by either side, court records show.
The twins built their mini-empire using a system of couriers and henchmen whom they trusted to drive loads in vehicles outfitted with secret compartments and hydraulic trap doors, court records show. The drugs were often picked up in broad daylight, in supermarket parking lots and outside of South Loop dollar stores, and kept in innocuous-looking stash houses from Chicago to Aurora.
Through it all, the Floreses kept a low profile. Their associates mostly had clean records, and they were not known for the rampant violence that many associate with street-level dealing.
Their main supplier was Guzman, whose vast operations included a fleet of 747 jets that had all the seats removed, the brothers said in sworn statements to a federal grand jury.
According to their statements, Guzman would load the planes with clothes and other goods and fly bogus "humanitarian" missions to South America. On the return trip to Mexico City, the brothers said, the planes would be packed with as much as 12,000 kilograms -- more than 13 tons -- of cocaine that was unloaded and driven out of the airport with the help of corrupt officials.
The brothers said Guzman's various lieutenants helped the cartel coordinate shipments of cocaine from Colombia to Mexico using submarines, speedboats and amphibious vessels to avoid law enforcement at sea.
jmeisner@tribpub.com
Twitter @jmertr22b
