"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat
Married to the convicted Chicago cocaine traffickers who helped bring down Sinaloa cartel drug lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán Loera, Viviana López and Valerie Gaytán are accused of spending millions of drug proceeds on everything from vacations to tuition.
A federal judge Tuesday refused to dismiss a money-laundering case against the wives of Sinaloa cartel-connected Chicago cocaine dealers Margarito Flores and Pedro Flores, saying he doesn’t believe prosecutors gave them a free pass to collect and spend their husbands’ drug proceeds after the twin brothers got locked up.
The 41-year-old Flores brothers surrendered to U.S. officials in Mexico in 2008 and agreed to cooperate against Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera, who was convicted in a massive conspiracy case and is now serving a life prison term thanks in large part to Pedro Flores’s testimony.
The brothers have finished serving their 14-year prison sentences for supplying tons of cocaine to Chicago and other cities.
But last year Pedro Flores’s wife Vivianna Lopez and Margarito Flores’s wife Valerie Gaytan were indicted in Chicago on federal money-laundering charges.
The wives are accused of helping collect millions of dollars of their husbands’ drug debts and spending the money on everything from vacations to private-school tuition for their kids. Relatives, including the twins’ older brother Armando Flores, also were charged.
On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly rejected Lopez and Gaytan’s assertion that they were granted immunity from prosecution as part of their husbands’ deals with prosecutors.
Vivianna Lopez has pointed to Pedro Flores’s testimony on Dec. 18, 2018, at Guzmán’s Brooklyn trial as evidence that prosecutors made a deal with her. On the witness stand, Flores said he told authorities about his family collecting drug debts and, asked whether his wife was charged, said, “No, she was given immunity.”
On Tuesday, Kennelly noted that the wives came clean to prosecutors about more than $4 million in narcotics proceeds they were hiding in 2010. But the judge said there isn’t any proof that prosecutors gave them approval to continue collecting and spending drug money without consequences for “all time.”
Lopez and Gaytan — who wrote a 2017 book, “Cartel Wives,” describing the highs and lows of being married to big-time cocaine traffickers — are accused of continuing to help hide and spend their husbands’ drug proceeds long after 2010.
Kennelly set their trial for next June 20.
Lopez’s aunt Laura Lopez has pleaded not guilty to money-laundering and is awaiting trial with the twins’ wives.
Armando Flores and Vivianna Lopez’s sister Bianca Finnigan have pleaded guilty to related charges and await sentencing.
Stupid chicks
ReplyDeleteI live in an area in San Diego that people from Mexico come to hide. Political figures have their families and malandros come to hide under the shield of business types. The favorite way to hit up the wives with charges is if they answer the phone and pass a message on behalf of the NTO. They get drag once the search warrant teams rings the bell at 5-6 am...
ReplyDeleteSo you live in Otay Ranch!
DeleteOtay Ranch are for broke fools....
DeleteImmunity from prosecution refers to immunity for past crimes that were committed, not future crimes that haven't been committed yet.
ReplyDeleteCartel witches learned the "no honor among thieves" code! Collect millions from clients while snakley hubby turns the clients into prison jumpsuits! The witches can now swish toilets with their scrub brush like they are stirring the steaming calderon in Shakespeare's classic Macbeth!While chanting, "Double double toil and trouble/Fire burn and cauldron bubble"
ReplyDeleteYou folks are calling them "disgusting" and "witches", ya'll be acting like they're monstrosities borne from the bowels of Hades.
Delete4:27 and worse, the Mumny resuscitated and her twin MUMMY, Lástima de dinero...
Deletehttps://twitter.com/DgitalDreams/status/1590246608377352197?s=20&t=qtuRMBeyRp89R2N66JqREA
ReplyDeleteWhat do you want?
DeleteBruh, drug dealers have the worst taste in women, fuck.
ReplyDeleteBro
DeleteLet’s see the wildebeest you sleep next to that you call a wife.
Delete@314 No doubt man. They should have purchased Louis Vuitton handbags and worn them on their heads. They fell from the ugly tree hitting every branch on the way down.
DeleteBuchonas! Should have stayed out of radar for awhile!
ReplyDeleteThe wife’s and the brothers are idiots for going out in media and talking about themselves.
ReplyDeleteI’m sure these ladies didn’t look so rough at early stages but cocaine is a hell of a drug. I used to know this cat’s old lady who had a fake nose due to high cocaine use, and when the fed came, she snitched on her husband because she had a bad addiction and couldn’t do time without blow. Her face looked like one of these chicks face.
ReplyDeleteThat’s fentanyl face not coca. I’m familiar with 80 year old woman’s in Boca Raton Florida who free based cocaine for like 60 years and they still look great
DeleteGoogle Son of Sam Law
ReplyDeleteonly 40 states follow that. They are free to publish in the other 10
DeleteThat’s what happens when you showoff and do interviews and tv shows about the life. Better to lie low, and enjoy your money in peace. Everyone wants clout
ReplyDeleteExactly
DeleteThat's fed time for them then.
ReplyDeleteRats she set Kato up. I hope they get ate in prison and damn Valerie is disgusting now.
ReplyDeleteEveryvody said he had all this power ... I don't think so after he got blasted All stupid ... People with power don't get shot up like that
DeleteThe one chic on the right loiiks like blinky the clown
ReplyDeleteUgly biatches
ReplyDelete