El Chapo Case: Brother of Chicago Twins Tied to Sinaloa Cartel Pleads Guilty to Money Laundering, Admits Hiding Millions for Them

An older brother of two Chicago drug lords associated with Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera has admitted that he hid millions of cash of their drug proceeds under his porch in Texas.

His brothers, Pedro Flores and Margarito Flores, who were once the biggest narcotics traffickers in Chicago, surrendered to authorities more than a decade ago in a case linked to El Chapo, Chicago Sun-Times reported.

On Thursday, Armando Flores pleaded guilty to participating in a money-laundering conspiracy in Chicago federal court. According to assistant U.S. attorney Andrew Erskine, Armando lived with the Flores twins in Mexico when they surrendered in 2008 and agreed to cooperate with authorities.

Erskine said the three Flores brothers and their families left Mexico for the U.S. in December 2008. The prosecutor noted that the 53-year-old brother of the Flores twins hid about $300,000 in a trailer he took across the border.

Erskine said Armando collected another $760,000 in drug cash from associates of the Flores twins in Los Angeles in early 2009.

The prosecutor noted that the older brother of the Flores twins hid most of the drug proceeds by burying the cash under the porch on the back of his home near Austin. Erskine said most of that money ended up being spent.

Brother of Chicago's Flores Twins Buried More Drug Cash Under His Porch in Texas

Andrew Erskine said Armando Flores eventually arranged to collect debts from the Flores twins' customers. He said Armando has managed to pick up some $4.8 million in two transactions.

In one of these transactions, Armando picked up $1.9 million with Valerie Gaytan, wife of Margarito Flores, and the money was hidden in a car parked in a garage.

Erskine said Gaytan visited Armando's home in 2010 when a U-Haul truck carrying secondhand furniture with some $2.3 million hidden inside it arrived. He noted that the Flores twins' older brother again buried the money under his porch.

Erskine said Armando regularly mailed cash to Gaytan and her family, which usually amounted to $9,000 per delivery. Armando was working as a Lyft driver before he was arrested 10 months ago. Since then, he has been in federal custody. His sentencing date has yet to be set.

According to court records, the Flores twins' older brother also pleaded guilty to federal narcotics trafficking charges in 1999 in Chicago and was sentenced to five years in prison.

Flores Twins Became Informants in Case Against Sinaloa Cartel Boss' El Chapo

The Flores brothers, known to the Sinaloa Cartel as "the Twins," admitted smuggling at least 1,500 kilograms of cocaine into the U.S. every month between 2005 and 2008.

Their plea agreements further noted that they sent more than $930 million in "bulk cash" back to the Mexican drug cartel. The Flores twin brothers became key informants in the case against El Chapo after they surrendered to authorities.

During their 2015 sentencing, a federal judge told the Flores twins that they would always have to worry about being hunted down by Sinaloa Cartel hitmen after their decisions to cooperate with prosecutors to apprehend El Chapo.

At the time, the judge said the Flores brothers and their families would always have to look over their shoulders. The judge added that they will always wonder anytime they start their cars if they would start or explode.

But the Flores twins still agreed to cooperate, and the prosecutors, in return, asked for an even lighter sentence for them.

The Sinaloa Cartel is considered to be one of the most powerful drug-trafficking syndicates in the world. The Mexican drug cartel has been known to carry out assassinations, murders, and torture to protect its turf.

The group was founded in the late 1980s and headed by El Chapo. Under El Chapo's leadership, the Sinaloa Cartel earned its reputation through violence and outfought several rival groups.

El Chapo was sentenced to spend the rest of his days in the ADX Florence "supermax" prison after being sentenced to life imprisonment in 2019.

This article is owned by Latin Post.

Written by: Mary Webber

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