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Well-Connected Twins in Little Village Helped Federal Agents Snag Jesús Vicente Zambada-Niebla, One of Mexico’S Most Notorious Drug Lords

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Well-Connected Twins in Little Village Helped Federal Agents Snag Jesús Vicente Zambada-Niebla, One of Mexico’S Most Notorious Drug Lords Xxxxx Well-connected twins in Little Village helped federal agents snag Jesús Vicente Zambada-Niebla, one of Mexico’s most notorious drug lords. But when Zambada- Niebla stands trial in Chicago, he’ll tell the judge that the DEA knew for years about the tons of cocaine he’d brought into the city for distribution across the U.S. By Andrew Kennis and Jason McGahan Illustration by Alex Ostroy September 20–26, 2012 TIMEOUTCHICAGO.COM 21 5;70hv0ftwiu0nc{qwv0kpff"""43 ;136134"""32<75"CO Crime The shipments reached U.S. soil in Los Angeles and were trucked to Chicago, where the The abandoned car of Little Village resident Flores operation received hundreds of kilos each week. They unloaded trailers of Colombian Margarito Flores Sr. was discovered in western cocaine and Mexican heroin into inconspicuous warehouses in Bedford Park and Chicago. They would split up the powder and stash it in still Mexico’s Sinaloa desert in 2009. A message more warehouses in Chicago, Justice, Romeoville and Plainfield. directed to his twin sons, Pedro and Margarito, The Flores twins sold some of their product to middlemen who mixed and resold it to street-level THOSE FUCKERS TO was stuck to its windshield:TELL dealers throughout the city, but the FBI says the twins handled a quantity of narcotics large enough HEAD. to supply wholesalers throughout the U.S., OR WE ARE GOING TO SEND YOU HIS SHUT UP presiding over a network sprawling northward to Milwaukee, westward across the Canadian border to Vancouver, and eastward to Detroit, Cincinnati The Flores twins, 31-year-old Chicago drug A status hearing on October 9 will set a new date and Columbus, reaching all the way to New York, traffickers, had warned their father not to for the trial, which has been delayed several times. Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. return to Mexico, and especially not to the In court filings, Zambada-Niebla’s lawyers Court filings estimate their annual income at drug-war-torn state of Sinaloa, home to the claim he, like the Flores brothers, was working $700 million, according to a 2009 Washington Post Sinaloa cartel, which U.S. intelligence with the Drug Enforcement Administration, and article; the Flores crew reportedly shrink-wrapped considers one of the most powerful drug that in exchange for intel on rival cartels, the U.S. the cash proceeds and hid them inside trafficking organizations in the world. government turned a blind eye as “tons of illicit condominiums and brick split-levels in Chicago, Margarito Sr. was never heard from again. drugs continued to be smuggled into Chicago and Hinsdale, Palos Hills and Plainfield registered to The brothers, now in U.S. custody and acting as other parts of the United States.” In the months relatives and girlfriends with no criminal records. informants in a plea deal whose details remain building up to the trial, a litany of court documents But there weren’t enough trusted homeowners in secret, will be the star witnesses in the Chicago trial has been released that describe Chicago as a major the network to receive so much money. The of Jesús Vicente Zambada-Niebla, a head of the distribution hub. The filings also suggest that immense market share created the necessity to Sinaloa cartel and the biggest Mexican drug damning details will be revealed about U.S. launder the glut of cash in otherwise legitimate kingpin ever to be prosecuted in a U.S. courtroom. cooperation with some of the world’s most businesses, according to sources familiar with the powerful narcos. twins. Pedro and Margarito invested in a barbershop in Berwyn called Millennium Cuts, ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ which remains open, and opened a Mexican restaurant in West Lawn called Mama’s Kitchen, Between 2001 and 2008, Pedro and Margarito which is now closed. Flores’s drug distribution operation flourished. To get an idea of just how large the Flores Raised in Pilsen and Little Village, the brothers had operation was, one only needs to compare their direct access to Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquín “El $700 million estimated annual income to the total Chapo” Guzmán-Loera courtesy of their father, street value of all drugs seized in Chicago: $208 who had made a career of trafficking drugs for the million worth in 2009, $139 million in 2008, $118 Sinaloa outfit. million in 2007, $143 million in 2006 and $235 Their ties to El Chapo meant they could million in 2005, according to the Chicago Police circumvent the traditional supply chain controlled Department. In any given year, drug seizures never by local street gangs, and in turn, avoid the gangs’ reached a third of the value of what the Flores crew trifling turf disputes. The purity and quantity of dealt annually. After the Flores empire was the cocaine they received directly from Mexico dismantled, cocaine prices surged on the streets of (roughly between 1,500 and 2,000 kilos, or about Chicago, from $18,000 per kilo to $29,000 in 2009, Margarito Flores Jr. 3,300 to 4,400 pounds, of cocaine per month, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. according to court documents) further ensured the That the Flores operation had grown so huge twins answered to no one but the Mexican cartels. isn’t surprising since Chicago has one of the The Flores’s value and importance as traffickers largest Mexican populations among all U.S. for the Sinaloa cartel put them among a select cities, says Special Agent in Charge John “Jack” number of people to have met in person with the Riley, head of the DEA’s Chicago Field Division. elusive El Chapo, who escaped from a Guadalajara, (According to the 2010 census, Chicago’s Mexico, prison 11 years ago and is one of the most Mexican population is fourth behind Los wanted fugitives in the world. Angeles, San Antonio and Houston.) “That By 2001, the Flores brothers had become the allows Mexican drug traffickers to blend in more, main connection to Chicago for several of the avoiding sticking out in a crowd, while also leading Mexican drug cartels. They were the having the benefits of more family and friends as principal link in a drug-supply chain that support,” Riley says. “Family members in the connected Colombian producers with Mexican States are key to the cartels, as trust is central to smugglers and on to North American the operation.” consumers. According to court documents, the ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ ✗ drugs were delivered to the U.S. by a variety of means—on speedboats, fishing vessels, Boeing 747 cargo planes, container ships and tractor Though the business rested on their family Pedro Flores trailers, and even by submarine. connections to Mexico, the Flores twins had ILLUSTRATIONS: STEPHEN MANCUSI 22 TIMEOUTCHICAGO.COM September 20–26, 2012 5;70hv0ftwiu0nc{qwv0kpff"""44 ;136134"""32<75"CO Crime STAND GUARD Military of cers in Mexico City keep watch on Vicente ZambadaNiebla (front, third from left) and ve men presented as his bodyguards a day after ZambadaNiebla’s arrest in March 2009. managed to remain independent of any one cartel A close degree of familiarity is in the supply chain. Between 2002 and 2008, they evident between the men on the had benefited handsomely from a power-sharing recordings—at one point Vicente is agreement in Mexico between the Sinaloa cartel heard affectionately calling and a clan of four brothers at the head of the Margarito Jr. twin—that offer a rare Beltrán-Leyva crime family. glimpse into the deliberations of After the six-year span of peace that brought men with a near-mythic reputation prosperity to both cartels, a feud arose that turned for secrecy in their affairs. to war in May 2008. At the heart of the violence was “This government is letting the MAKING WAVES Words on a mural in a dispute over how the spoils from the lucrative gringos do whatever they want,” Culiacán, the capital Flores operation were to be divided. Amid an El Mayo is heard complaining in city of Mexico’s drug torn Sinaola state, atmosphere of mutual distrust, one of the brothers, one conversation, referring to translate to “wave of Alfredo Beltrán-Leyva, was arrested in Mexico. Mexican President Felipe violence and blood.” His brothers blamed El Chapo for tipping off Calderón and his open-door policy authorities before the arrest. Their suspicion led to U.S. law enforcement operating them to declare war against the Sinaloa cartel. The in Mexico. translates roughly to “Pretty Boy Vicente,” was Beltrán-Leyva brothers took their vengeance in the “They are fucking us everywhere,” El arrested in March 2009 in a predawn raid in streets of Culiacán, the state capital of Sinaloa, Chapo concurs. Mexico City by an elite team of army troops and where escalating drug-related violence claimed the Firepower—how to obtain more of it and federal agents. According to court documents, lives of 387 people, presumably some innocent, in what to use it on—is a recurrent theme from the Zambada-Niebla stands accused as the logistical the bloody summer of 2008. taped excerpts. Vicente is heard asking coordinator of drug shipments for the Sinaloa The ethic of violence-for-violence quickly spun Margarito Jr. to obtain explosives and military- cartel. On the day El Vicentillo was paraded out of control, endangering the lives of the Flores grade weapons. The men even voice a desire to before television cameras in handcuffs by the family. The Flores twins chose to cooperate with “send a message” to U.S. authorities by setting Mexican Army, he sported a stylish haircut, a U.S. law enforcement, according to a 2011 off an explosion near a government building or navy blue corduroy blazer, dark jeans and a government proffer, though the details of this plea media outlet in Mexico City.
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