Twin brothers who ran a massive Chicago distribution hub for Mexican drug cartels but then helped the US government convict more than a dozen drug dealers were sentenced to 14 years in prison on Tuesday in federal court. Prosecutors praised Pedro and Margarito Flores, 33, for unprecedented co-operation and for risking their lives to tape one-time Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman - now in prison in Mexico - and other cartel members.
They asked US District Judge Ruben Castillo to consider 10-year sentences for the brothers for their guilty pleas to drug-trafficking charges. But Castillo said he imposed higher sentences on the US-born brothers "in light of the devastation you caused this city and your country."
The government on Tuesday also unsealed expanded and new indictments against alleged money launderers and cartel members, based on evidence provided by the brothers, who were debriefed for months after surrendering to drug agents in 2008. The Flores brothers would be key witnesses against Guzman, who has been indicted in several US jurisdictions, if he is ever sent to the United States for trial. Mexico's attorney general said last week he expects the United States to submit an extradition request soon for the drug lord.
US Attorney Zachary Fardon declined to comment at a news conference on Tuesday whether the US Attorney's Office in Chicago would request Guzman's extradition. Castillo told the Flores brothers - who briefly apologised for their crimes - that they were under a life sentence no matter what the justice system does because they will always live in fear of retaliation from the cartel.
"Every time you start a car you will be wondering if the car will start or explode," the judge said. Security was beefed up at Castillo's courtroom, with double screening for all who entered. For several years beginning in 2005, the Flores brothers handled major shipments of cocaine and other drugs for the Sinaloa and Beltran Leyva cartels, which they received in Chicago and redistributed to dealers in Philadelphia, New York, Detroit and other cities.
Their operation moved 1,500 to 2,000 kilograms (1.6 to 2.2 tons) of cocaine into Chicago every month and sent about $1.8 billion dollars in proceeds back to Mexico. As part of their plea agreement they forfeited more than $3.6 million. Castillo said the twins were the biggest drug dealers he had seen in 20 years on the bench. Their operations "became a highway of drugs coming into this city," Castillo said.
In 2008 the Flores brothers voluntarily approached the US government. After a year of undercover collaboration they turned themselves in and reached a plea agreement in which they admitted they were guilty of drug trafficking. Assistant US Attorney Michael Ferrara told Castillo the brothers penetrated layers of security around Guzman, flying in a private cartel plane to a remote landing strip on a mountain side and then tape-recording the drug lord. Their father was kidnapped in Mexico and presumed killed by drug gangs after the cartels learned the brothers had turned against them, Ferrara said.
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