From Flipping Big Macs To Importing Tons Of Cocaine: Chicago Twins Who Helped Bring Down El Chapo Say McDonald’s Was Their Business Model

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

In a new podcast, Margarito Flores and Pedro Flores say they got jobs at a Little Village McDonald’s when they were teenagers and honed management skills they used in their drug business.

The twin brothers who authorities say were the most prolific drug dealers in Chicago history — and, after being caught, helped bring down Sinaloa cartel drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera — say they learned some of their management skills while cooking french fries and working the drive-thru at a McDonald’s.

In new interviews, Pedro Flores and Margarito Flores say they were 17 when they decided to work at the burger chain’s restaurant at 26th Street and Kedzie Avenue in Little Village.

The Golden Arches gave the brothers a basic education in running a business, everything from having a consistent product to being prepared to absorb a financial loss, they say in the new podcast “Surviving El Chapo: The Twins Who Brought Down A Drug Lord,” offering a rare inside look at the drug trade.

The twins say they got their first lessons about running a drug business from their father in the late 1980s after he finished serving prison time for arranging a heroin deal at the same McDonald’s in Little Village.

The brothers say they were just 7 when they accompanied him on road trips to buy marijuana in Mexico. They learned to compress the marijuana to transport it to Chicago, spraying Coca-Cola on the leaves to make them stick together, according to the podcast, and learned about crossing the border, which routes to take and how to avoid the attention of customs agents.

The McDonald’s at 2609 S. Kedzie Ave. in July 2007

Their father moved to Mexico, and their older brother Armando Flores, a drug dealer, became their father figure, making them help around the house, attend a Catholic school and come home before the city’s evening curfew. But Armando Flores went to prison on a 1998 drug charge, and the twins were on their own.

The brothers made their first drug deal at the McDonald’s at 26th and Kedzie, not far from their home, according to the podcast. By 17, they say, they were selling a lot of cocaine, sitting on $1 million in profits and needed to create a system “where you can’t mess it up.”

For them, McDonald’s was the model.

Pedro Flores (left) and his brother Margarito Flores, who once were the biggest drug traffickers in Chicago, smuggling a ton of cocaine a month into the United States.U.S. Marshals Service

The podcast doesn’t always identify which brother is speaking, but one is heard saying, “I was learning the business part at McDonald’s. I’m learning to do fries. I’m learning to grill. I washed the dishes. I did the drive-thru. I did the front.

“It was a great experience for the both of us, I think.”

That brother also talks about how they were impressed with the restaurant’s consistency: “McDonald’s went the extra mile to make the ketchup pump and the mustard pump to release the exact amount of mustard and the exact amount of ketchup needed to taste the same every time. You know what you’re gonna get.”

McDonald’s didn’t respond to questions.

Later, the brothers say they applied that lesson to the cocaine they sold to drug dealers in Chicago and other cities. Every time, they say, it had to be the same quality product: uncut and pure.

The twins say they liked McDonald’s “team environment” and how managers made employees feel safe.

They also say working there helped them master how to accept a business loss. One of the brothers talks about a time when they were working at the restaurant when an employee dropped a block of cheese on the dirty floor. 

The employee picked it up and was going to keep using it. The brother recalls saying to the employee, “There’s a thousand blocks of cheese in the freezer. Believe me, McDonald’s is not going to care. They’re going to care more that you gave somebody cheese with hair on it.”

Years later, Margarito Flores, who goes by Jay, was kidnapped and held for ransom. Pedro Flores, who goes by Pete, paid for his freedom with cocaine.

Drawing on what they learned from their McDonald’s experience about taking a loss, they say that not only did they absorb the cost of the cocaine as a business expense, but they decided not to seek revenge even though they knew who was behind the kidnapping — because that would have been bad for business.

At McDonald’s, the brothers say they realized they needed to prepare for surges in customer demand at breakfast and lunch time.

As they built their drug business, they say they applied that knowledge, making sure their trucks were fully stockpiled with cocaine on the first and 15th of every month because that’s when people were getting their “government checks” and likeliest to buy drugs.

Later, the twins set up warehouses in Chicago, Los Angeles and other cities to distribute their cocaine all over the country, with as many as 30 people working directly for them.

“I would have been a beast at Amazon,” one of them jokes in the podcast about the logistics savvy they developed.

A courtroom sketch showing Pedro Flores (left) and his twin brother and former partner in crime Margarito Flores appearing before then-U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo in Chicago in 2015

In 2008, after a decade at the top of the cocaine trade, the Flores twins were approached by federal law enforcement officials in Monterrey, Mexico, and, knowing they were caught and could face long prison terms, agreed to cooperate against their cartel drug supplier, El Chapo.

In return, the brothers, who admitted importing more than a ton of cocaine into the United States every month, in 2015 got relatively light sentences of 14 years in prison.

In 2018, Pedro Flores testified against Guzman in New York at the trial that ended with the kingpin being sentenced to life in prison.

Today, the twins are out of prison and on supervised release, presumably heeding the advice of the federal judge who told them they would have to keep an eye out for the rest of their lives for Guzman’s assassins.

Their wives, their older brother and other relatives all are facing federal charges in Chicago, accused of helping launder millions of dollars in drug money after the twins were arrested.

Chicago Sun Times