El Chapo Trial: "Any idiot could sell drugs in Mexico. It's very difficult to sell drugs like that in the U.S." says El Mayo

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat

Pedro Flores

Pedro Flores, the identical twin brother of Margarito Flores, was next to occupy the witness stand as a cooperative witness. I am uncertain if Lichtman will be cross examine him, because of a conflict.  Lichtman was the attorney to one of the twins.  It is an issue that sort of went through some filings and I recall the end result was that whichever twin he represented said he would be ok with it, as long as Lichtman would not conduct the cross and of course not divulge anything said in attorney client privilege.  I am not sure what that even takes shape in. But let’s leave it at that.

I will say that Pedro and Margarito are the stars of this trial.  They may be the biggest gift ever given to the DEA.  Clearly it is their testimony that is impenetrable, because it is not bad guy testimony given on its merit, but a mountain of collaboration and hard evidence to support what they say.  In the end they had enough to potentially put away over 4 dozen bad guys. His cooperation included making telephone conversation recordings, multiple ones with Chapo himself.  And Other key players.

The Flores twins were born in Chicago, raised in Little Village. La Villita, the two mile slice of Mexico authenticity set within one of the most famous cities in United States.

The twins were born to a housewife and a small time drug dealer.

For years, the Flores twins ran a drug distribution ring out of Chicago that shipped thousands of pounds of narcotics to wholesale customers in New York, Washington, Cincinnati and other cities.

When they dismantled their operation in 2008 and began cooperating with the feds, prosecutors say “the twins had reached "the highest echelons of the cartel world."

Chapo Guzman was their main supplier.

The reason they decided to cooperate with the government has changed over the years.  Perhaps it was a combination of circumstances.  But Chicago put the heat on drug dealing and trafficking and conducted a successful operation resulting in large seizures, seizures of drugs meaning lost shipments, meaning money owed to Sinaloa Cartel.  They felt the squeeze and surmised they would never be able to pay back the debt.  In the drug business that is a death sentence.

They called on the feds to begin cooperating and working with them undercover.

Their father was said to be furious at learning their sons had turned into “rats”. 

Against his sons' wishes and despite stern warnings from their government handlers, Margarito Flores Sr. left the family's home in the Little Village neighborhood in 2009 and went back to Mexico.

Within days, the father was kidnapped and presumed to be murdered.  A note was left behind in his unoccupied vehicle in Mexico, saying why he was taken-- His sons, Pedro and Margarito Jr., were rats.

Testimony

From 2005 to 2008, Pedro said, he received an astonishing 38 tons of coke from Sinaloa Cartel. In return, he said, he sent more than $800 million in cash back to Sinaloa.

In 2001 Pedro says he was getting cocaine from Lupe Ledesma, one of  “Chapo’s guys”.

After their indictment, the twins moved to Guadalajara, Jalisco. At that point, they were still working with their middleman, Lupe Ledesma.

But Lupe sought revenge after the twins lost a drug shipment to  theft.

Lupe summoned Pedro to a meeting and 10 minutes in, 20 Mexican federal police burst into the room. Pedro was stripped, cuffed, blindfolded and placed in a squad car. For the next two weeks, he was held in a cell. He got sick, lost 30 pounds and thought he was going to die.

Then one day, without explanation, he was taken from the cell to a remote area. Still cuffed and blindfolded, when something was placed in his pocket.

When he was knocked to the ground. A voice said, "You’re lucky your brother saved you."

He was abandoned and in his pocket was the handcuff key.

Pedro explained his entry into dealing cocaine, along with family members, to becoming a lieutenant for the world’s most wanted capo, Chapo Guzman.

He testified he already has cooperated against 50 people in the cartel network, “risking his life”  to help the U.S.

In self-serving testimony, Flores tries out altruism, it may have worked if one wasn’t presented with the truth.

“Pedro said. “That lack of living. What I was doing, I couldn’t promise my family tomorrow.”

Pedro lays it out there that he still has made additional mistakes.  He testified he created a scam to flood other inmates’ commissary accounts with money, he testified, and got his wife pregnant again, this time in a bathroom while in DEA custody.

Below is a recording that features Alfredillo arranging a heroin deal for his dad with Margarito Flores. Pedro said that ringtone you can hear in the background was his DEA handler calling him on another line.

More testimony from Tuesday

Pedro describes fleeing Chicago after the indictment came out for his arrest, and  getting kidnapped in Mexico, and his first encounter with Chapo, which involved seeing a naked man chained to a tree.

He repeatedly refers to “The Man”.

Such as; when a prosecutor asked who supplied him and his brother with drugs, Pedro said "The Sinaloa cartel and the man."

"Who is the man?" the prosecutor asked.

"Mr. Guzmán," Pedro replied.

Pedro said even before he connected with Mayo, he and Margarito distributed  over 15-20 tons of cocaine in Chicago. He says they began working in the drug business with their father at the age of seven.

About the naked guy:  Pedro said he was flown into the sierras of Sinaloa to meet Chapo in 2005. He said landing on a clandestine runway was very frightening. He and his brother passed by a naked man being held by chains to a tree. He said he didn’t know what happened to the naked guy.

 He wasn't sure what happened to that guy.

Pedro testified  about how he secretly taped calls with cartel members. A recording of him discussing a heroin deal with Chapo's son Alfredillo Guzman. [upper left]

Pedro  testified that El Mayo told him: "Any idiot could sell drugs in Mexico. It's very difficult to sell drugs like that in the U.S."

Transcript Slide Show Below [view at full size]

The twins also distributed heroin for the Sinaloa cartel, but on a smaller scale. Pedro estimated today that he and his brother moved around 200 kilos worth $10 million. In one those deals, they worked with El Chapo's son, Alfredo Guzmán-Salazar aka Alfredillo.

Below view at full size it is transcript of a phone call between Chapo and Pedro entered into evidence.  Transcript it’s the transcript of a secretly recorded telephone call between  the Flores twins speaking with the son of El Chapo, Alfredillo Guzmán. The phone number he gives them belongs to El Chapo.

Below are phone calls recorded by the Flores Twins CLICK ON IMAGES to enlarge [not presented at trial yet, they are from court documents]