Threat of retaliation by cartel members looms over those involved in the case
By Michael Tarm
Associated Press
CHICAGO (AP) - A federal judge sentenced the twin brothers to 14 years in prison each for running a nearly $2 billion North American drug ring, agreeing with prosecutors to drastically reduce their sentences as reward for their cooperation against Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and other Mexican cartel leaders.
Pedro and Margarito Flores, 33, were portrayed by prosecutors as among the most valuable traffickers-turned-informants in history. With credit for the time served awaiting sentencing and for good behavior in prison, the brothers could be out in as little as six years.
Security at sentencing in U.S. District Court in Chicago was tighter than usual. To protect them, neither of the twins' attorneys was named in court.
Chief U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo said the twins brought "devastation" to the country.
"But for your cooperation, you'd be leaving here with life sentences," he said. He likened Americans' sense of security to walls, telling the twins, "You devastated those walls, you knocked them down."
Castillo did say the brothers would be looking over their shoulders the rest of their lives - in prison and out - in fear that a cartel assassin was near.
"Even though I am not going to sentence you to life, you are leaving here with a life sentence," he told them. "Each time you start your car (when you are out of prison), you are going to be wondering, is it going to start, or will it explode."
The Flores twins, wearing olive-green clothes and with closely cropped haircuts, sat at a defense table, both of them tapping one foot nervously. Just before the judge imposed a sentence, each walked to a podium separately to speak.
"I'm ashamed, I'm embarrassed, I'm regretful," Margarito Flores said. "There is no excuse."
Pedro's voice appeared to break as he apologized.
"I wanted to thank the United States (and federal agents) ... for allowing the opportunity not to spend my life in prison," he said.
For security reasons, the brothers had pleaded guilty to a count of drug conspiracy behind closed doors at a 2012 hearing. Tuesday was their first public appearance since they began to spill their secrets six years ago.
Prosecutor Mike Ferrara had asked for a sentence of around 10 and no more than 16 years. He noted that the twins' cooperation led to indictments of Guzman and 50 others, and they had reached out to federal agents while "at the very top" of one "of the most dangerous cartels on earth."
The twins began cooperating with agents in 2008, Ferrara said.
The 5-foot-4 twins (1.62-meter) initially put together a less-ambitious trafficking operation, but their trafficking careers soared after they left Chicago to live in Mexico around 2004. In mid-2005, they met with Guzman in his secret mountain compound to cut major drug deals, government filings said.
The brothers ran their operation from a Mexican ranch. Their network stretched from its Chicago hub to New York, Detroit and Washington, D.C., and to Los Angeles and Vancouver, British Columbia.
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.
Court documents say the twins approached U.S. authorities on their own in the summer of 2008, offering to cooperate.
Published: Wed, Jan 28, 2015
