Trafficking twins jail sentences trimmed after turning informant

[LookAround]

Trafficking twins jail sentences trimmed after turning informant

Brothers who cooperated in high-profile drug probes could secure release in six years

PUBLISHED : Wednesday, 28 January, 2015, 10:43pm
UPDATED : Wednesday, 28 January, 2015, 10:43pm

Associated Press in Chicago

Pedro (left) and Margarito Flores. Photo: AP

A US federal judge sentenced twin brothers to 14 years in prison each for running a nearly US$2 billion North American drug ring, agreeing with prosecutors to drastically reduce their sentences as a reward for their cooperation against Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and other Mexican cartel leaders.

Pedro and Margarito Flores, 33, were portrayed by prosecutors as among the most valuable traffickers-turned-informants in history. With credit for time served awaiting sentencing and for good behaviour in prison, the brothers could be out in as little as six years.

Security at sentencing in Chicago's US District Court on Tuesday was tighter than usual.

Chief US District Judge Ruben Castillo said the twins brought "devastation" to the country.

"But for your cooperation, you'd be leaving here with life sentences," he said. He likened Americans' sense of security to walls, telling the twins: "You devastated those walls, you knocked them down."

Castillo did say the brothers would be looking over their shoulders the rest of their lives - in prison and out - in fear that a cartel assassin might be near.

"Even though I am not going to sentence you to life, you are leaving here with a life sentence," he told them. "Each time you start your car [when you are out of prison], you are going to be wondering, is it going to start, or will it explode."

The Flores twins, wearing olive-green clothes and with closely-cropped haircuts, sat at a defence table, both of them tapping one foot nervously. Just before the judge imposed sentence, each walked to a podium separately to speak.

"I'm ashamed, I'm embarrassed, I'm regretful," Margarito Flores said. "There is no excuse."

Pedro's voice appeared to break as he apologised.

"I wanted to thank the United States [and federal agents] ... for allowing [me] the opportunity not to spend my life in prison," he said.

Prosecutor Mike Ferrara had asked for a sentence of around 10 years. He noted the twins' cooperation led to indictments of Guzman and at least 50 others.

The pair began cooperating with agents in 2008 and engaged with cartel leaders for months, sometimes switching on recorders and shoving them in their pockets. They continually risked death, Ferrara said.

The brothers' father, Margarito Flores Senior, is presumed to have paid for their cooperation with his life. He was kidnapped in Mexico as word spread of his sons' cooperation, according to government documents.

The twins careers soared after they left Chicago to live in Mexico around 2004. In mid-2005, they met with Guzman in his secret mountain compound to cut major drug deals, government filings said.

The brothers ran their operation from a Mexican ranch. Their network stretched from its Chicago hub to New York, Detroit, Los Angeles, Washington, and Vancouver in Canada.