Cartel Wives Read online

  Copyright

  A NOTE TO THE READER

  In writing this book, we have recreated events, locales, and conversations based on our memories of them. In order to protect our own safety and that of various friends and loved ones, it was necessary to condense, omit, or alter certain events and timelines and to change the names and identifying details of certain individuals. In all events, however, we have striven to convey the true and unvarnished essence of our experience. Lastly, this is our memoir and not that of our husbands, and we have neither discussed, consulted, nor otherwise confirmed our recollections with them.

  Copyright © 2017 by Cartel Wives

  Jacket design by Anonymous

  Jacket copyright © 2017 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to produce the creative works that enrich our culture.

  The scanning, uploading, and distribution of this book without permission is a theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like permission to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), please contact [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

  Grand Central Publishing

  Hachette Book Group

  1290 Avenue of the Americas, New York, NY 10104

  grandcentralpublishing.com

  twitter.com/grandcentralpub

  First edition: April 2017

  Grand Central Publishing is a division of Hachette Book Group, Inc. The Grand Central Publishing name and logo is a trademark of Hachette Book Group, Inc.

  The publisher is not responsible for websites (or their content) that are not owned by the publisher.

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data has been applied for.

  ISBNs: 978-1-5387-4529-8 (hardcover), 978-1-5387-4526-7 (ebook)

  E3-20170508-JV-NF

  Contents

  Cover

  Title Page

  Copyright

  Dedication

  Cast of Major Characters

  Introduction

  PART ONE: THE AMERICAN DREAM 1. Olivia

  2. Mia

  3. Junior

  4. Peter

  5. The Heat Is On

  PART TWO: MIDDLE MEN 6. San Juan

  7. Guadalajara

  8. The Ultimate Betrayal

  9. El Chapo

  10. Rescuing Peter

  PART THREE: IN TOO DEEP 11. Sinaloa

  12. For Better or for Worse

  13. Margarito Senior

  14. The Peak of Their Careers

  15. “This Is Going a Little Too Far”

  16. The Strip Club Incident

  17. Do-or-Die Time

  PART FOUR: INFORMANTS 18. No Promises

  19. The Feds

  20. Recordings, Raids, and Seizures

  21. The Countdown to the End

  22. Surrendering

  23. Crossing the Border

  PART FIVE: PURGATORY 24. Chicago

  25. Alabama

  26. Wives at War

  27. Forfeiture

  28. Arrests

  29. Grand Jury and Plea Agreements

  30. Sentencing

  31. Bringing Down El Chapo

  Afterword

  Acknowledgments

  Sources

  Newsletters

  To my husband. Without you, I wouldn’t be who I am today. You have been my everything since the day I said, “I love you.” A lifetime with you wouldn’t be enough. I can’t wait to spend forever with you.

  —Mia

  To my husband, my best friend. You were right again. When you told me I’d get a record deal and a book deal, I couldn’t see it. You believed in me, built me up, and supported me. When I wanted to quit, you encouraged me to finish. You said the tough times would help me grow and see how blessed I am. It took writing this book to realize that. You’ve inspired me, motivated me, and have been my biggest fan. With you by my side, I can accomplish anything I put my heart into. You’ve always put me first, seen the good in me, and brought out the best in me. You made every dream of mine come true, and I will love you and cherish you for the rest of my life.

  —Olivia

  In loving memory of Margarito Flores, Sr.

  You will never be forgotten. May you rest in peace. We love you.

  Cast of Major Characters

  (in alphabetical order)

  Tomas Arevalo-Renteria: Nicknamed “Tommy.” He was from Sinaloa and became Junior Flores’s best friend. In Chicago, he was the twins’ first supplier from Mexico and soon began to work for them. The Flores twins later helped secure his indictment.

  Alfredo Beltrán Leyva: Nicknamed “Mochomo.” He is the younger brother of Arturo, and along with his four other brothers, founder of the Beltrán Leyva Organization (BLO), one of Mexico’s top cartels. He was a BLO boss alongside his brother Arturo. The Flores brothers’ cooperation was a major factor in him not going to trial, and on February 23, 2016, Mochomo pled guilty to conspiracy charges and is now serving a life sentence.

  Arturo Beltrán Leyva: Nicknamed “La Barba” and the self-proclaimed Jefe de Jefes or “Boss of Bosses.” Along with his four brothers, he was one of the founders of the Beltrán Leyva Organization (BLO), one of Mexico’s most powerful cartels. The BLO was allied with the Sinaloa Cartel until they started warring in 2008. He was the cartel’s head boss until he was killed by Navy SEALs during a raid on December 16, 2009.

  Joe Bonelli: The longtime lawyer of Peter and Junior Flores, who defended their brother Adrian against drug charges and took their case when they decided to become federal informants. During the brothers’ incarceration, Joe felt he was such a target of retaliation by the cartels that he asked his name never be used, and in all public documents, it’s been redacted.

  Ruben Castillo: The chief judge for the United States Court of the Northern District of Illinois, who presided over the federal cases of Peter and Junior Flores.

  David: Junior Flores’s lawyer, who is a top attorney in Chicago and was hired while Junior was negotiating his plea agreement.

  Eric: A special agent for the Chicago bureau of the DEA. He became one of the leading agents who oversaw the Flores brothers’ case when they became informants.

  Manuel Fernández Valencia, aka “La Puerca” or “El Animal”: A Sinaloa and BLO associate who controlled a series of tunnels from Mexicali to Calexico and became a trusted business partner of the Flores brothers. He was captured and arrested in late 2010.

  Adrian Flores: The older brother of Pedro and Margarito Flores, Jr. He was arrested for drug conspiracy in August 1998. Despite the constant pressure he put on his younger brothers to make an honest living, his arrest left a financial vacuum in his family, causing the twins to build their own drug enterprise.

  Amilia Flores: The widow of Margarito Flores, Sr. She has seven children with her late husband.

  Daniela Flores: The wife of Adrian Flores, she fled Mexico in 2008 along with the rest of the Flores family.

  Margarito Flores, Jr.: Nicknamed “Junior.” He and his identical twin, Pedro, were born on June 12, 1981, in Chicago, the youngest of seven children. He and his brother became two of the most important cooperators in US history and are scheduled to be released from prison no later than 2021.

  Margarito Flores, Sr.: Born in 1937 in central Mexico. This father of twelve dropped out of school in third grade, married his wife in 1959, and immigrated to Chicago in 1969. In 1981, he was sentenced to ten years in prison for possession of a controlled substance, and after his release, he taught his young sons the drug trade. He returned to Mexico in 2009 and was never seen again.

  Mia Flores: Born in Chicago in 1980 and
daughter of a police officer in the Chicago Police Department’s special units. She married Peter Flores in 2005 and now lives in hiding with her two young children.

  Olivia Flores: Born in Chicago in 1975 to a Chicago police officer. She married Margarito Flores, Jr. in 2005 and now lives in hiding with her two young children.

  Pedro Flores: Nicknamed “Peter.” He and his identical twin, Margarito Jr., were born on June 12, 1981, in Chicago, the youngest of seven children. He and his brother became two of the most important cooperators in US history and are scheduled to be released from prison no later than 2021.

  Kevin Garcia: Known to most people as “K.” This high-ranking member of the Latin Kings was Olivia Flores’s second husband. He was gunned down by rival gang members in Chicago in June 2003.

  Sergio Gomez: A paid informant of the Chicago Police Department beginning in the late 1990s. Gomez was behind the 2003 kidnapping of Peter Flores in Chicago. With the assistance of corrupt police officers, it’s estimated he kidnapped and robbed at least twenty-nine other drug dealers over the years. In 2015, Gomez was sentenced to forty years in prison.

  Joaquín Guzmán Loera: Nicknamed “El Chapo.” He was born in poverty to a cattle farmer from the Mexican state of Sinaloa on April 4, 1957. He rose to become the head of the Sinaloa Cartel and the most powerful and sought-after drug lord in the world.

  Mark Jones: The high school and college boyfriend of Mia Flores. He became a CPD beat cop. In 2012, in a massive police corruption scandal, he pleaded guilty to stealing cash from suspected drug dealers and other Chicago citizens. Because of his work undercover, he was sentenced to just two months in prison.

  Leo: The first husband of Olivia Flores. He gave prosecutors information about Sergio Gomez’s plot to kidnap Olivia Flores’s parents, hoping for a lenient sentence.

  Matthew: A special agent for the Milwaukee bureau of the DEA. He originally raided the Flores brothers’ homes in 2004, an event that led to them becoming fugitives. He worked closely with Eric on the Flores brothers’ case when they became informants.

  Músico: Arturo Beltrán Leyva’s right-hand man and top lieutenant in the BLO.

  German Olivares: El Chapo’s chief executive and right-hand man. He controlled the Juárez Plaza.

  Rubén Oseguera Cervantes: Nicknamed “El Mencho.” This feared leader of the New Generation Cartel once barricaded Guadalajara and set fire to banks, buses, and gas stations, then posted it on YouTube. He’s been known to murder Mexican Army soldiers and shoot down military helicopters with shoulder-held rocket launchers. After the capture of El Chapo, he is now the most wanted drug lord in Mexico.

  Pablo: Known as “Uncle Pablo” to Peter and Junior Flores. He was an old family friend and associate of the Sinaloa Cartel who for many years served as their supplier. He was behind the April 2005 kidnapping of Peter Flores and the December 2005 kidnapping of Margarito Flores, Sr. After betraying El Chapo and not settling his debts with him, he was kidnapped and executed by the drug lord’s sicarios.

  Paco: One of Junior Flores’s closest friends. Músico was his boss in the BLO, and he was Chapillo Lomas’s compadre. He was in charge of collecting $500,000 monthly to pay Mexican officials to open up drug routes.

  Rambo: El Chapo’s top sicario, or hitman, and head of a cell of hitmen in Jalisco, Mexico.

  Tom: An assistant US Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois from 2004 to 2015. Tom led the investigation and prosecution of the Flores brothers and the dozens of superseding indictments that spun out of their case. He left government service for private practice in February 2015.

  Alfredo Vásquez-Hernández: A compadre and longtime friend of El Chapo’s whom the Flores brothers partnered with to open a furniture transport company that would help them secretly transport drugs in rail cars. In November 2014 he pleaded guilty to drug conspiracy and was sentenced to twenty-two years in prison.

  Ismael Zambada García: Nicknamed “El Mayo.” He was born on New Year’s Day 1948. He is one of the founders and leaders of the Sinaloa Cartel, along with El Chapo Guzmán. He is currently under indictment by the United States and Mexico, with over $5 million in reward money for his capture, and with the imprisonment of El Chapo, he is the current head of the Sinaloa Cartel.

  Ismael Zambada Imperial, aka “Mayito Gordo”: The younger brother of Vicente and Mayito Flaco, this narco junior son of El Mayo was arrested near Culiacán in November 2014 and is due to be extradited to San Diego to stand trial for drug trafficking.

  Vicente Zambada Niebla: Nicknamed “El Vicentillo” or “El Niño.” He is one of the sons of El Mayo. Vicente rose to become number 3 in the Sinaloa Cartel. He was arrested in 2009 and extradited to the United States in 2010, where he became a US informant. He is currently awaiting sentencing for narcotics trafficking.

  Ismael Zambada Sicairos, aka “Mayito Flaco”: The younger brother of Vicente and older brother of Mayito Gordo. His indictment for drug trafficking was unsealed in San Diego in January 2015. He is now a fugitive.

  Introduction

  To our kids’ friends, we’re just average soccer moms.

  In truth, we’re the wives of identical twin brothers who are almost single-handedly responsible for the meteoric rise of narcotics in the United States over the last two decades. From 1998 to 2008, our husbands, Pedro and Margarito Flores, Jr., grew to become high-level traffickers who blazed a drug-riddled trail across the Mexican border, dramatically increasing the volume of cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, and marijuana passing into the United States, traveling through their hub in Chicago, and then fanning out to almost a dozen major cities across the United States and Canada.

  In 2008, at the height of their criminal enterprise, Peter and Junior, as we know them and will call them in this book, made the difficult and life-changing decision to cooperate with the federal government, become informants, and ultimately turn themselves in. This was a family decision, made by the four of us while sitting at the kitchen table one night, and we did it to spare our children from the horrors of the recent Mexican drug wars, with their torture, murder, and complete destruction of far too many families and communities. More than that, we needed to stop the cycle of crime that our husbands were born into; we didn’t want our children to see this as their future. We were never drug users, and our husbands weren’t—and never had been—proud of their day-to-day work. They did it only because it was the only life they’d ever known. In their family, drugs weren’t just normal and accepted, they were the trade their father taught them. Even in America—the supposed land of opportunity—when you’re poor, uneducated, and Mexican, drug dealing is often thought to be the only way up.

  After Peter and Junior became informants and told the US Attorney’s office every detail of their criminal career, they spent almost all of 2008 secretly recording conversations with the highest-level cartel members in Mexico, including notorious narcocriminal Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán. Their unprecedented cooperation helped secure the indictments of sixty-nine major drug figures, from the architects of border-crossing tunnels to the bosses of several cartels, who practically ran Mexico. Additionally, they assisted in eleven superseding indictments that netted over one hundred people. Today, not all of these people are in jail, but with our husbands’ testimony, they soon will be. And some of the worst of the worst are dead, killed by the mouths they once helped feed.

  In 2015, Peter and Junior were sentenced for their crimes and sent to off-the-radar federal Witness Security Unit prisons, and we went into hiding. We now live in undisclosed locations with our young children, visit our husbands on weekends and holidays, and lie to our friends and neighbors about who we are. While we sit in the carpool line waiting to pick up our kids, we wonder if it’s time to change our cell phone numbers for the second time that month, fret over whether our husbands’ upcoming testimony against a cartel head will cause a hitman to track us down, and try as hard as possible to imagine a distant future when our families will be reunited, under the watchf
ul eye of the Witness Protection Program.

  Even if you’ve never touched drugs, they’ve changed your life. While you may not realize it, narcotics are all around you, and they’re altering the very fabric of the world we live in. The innocent-looking cashier at your neighborhood convenience store may be hiding a kilo of cocaine behind the counter, or the sweet, quiet lady you sit next to on a plane may have a balloon full of heroin in her stomach. The smiling class parent who greets you at your son’s junior high school dance might secretly be battling an addiction to prescription painkillers. Our husbands stashed millions of dollars’ worth of cocaine and heroin in a luxury townhouse down the street from Harpo Studios, and did the same at a home in tony Calabasas, a few miles from where the Kardashians live. Yet none of the neighbors suspected a thing. Or, look at us. We tell people we’re just stay-at-home moms who are separated from our husbands, but in truth, we were once on a first-name basis with men who put bullets into the backs of people’s heads. While most mothers like us are hosting the Boy Scout troop on Sunday nights, we’re coming back from a day visiting our husbands in federal prison.

  You can blame a lot of things for the pervasiveness of drugs in this country, but the truth is that Peter and Junior Flores, two baby-faced Mexican American identical twin brothers from the West Side of Chicago, are behind much of it. While we knew—and know—them as the gentle, loving, mild-mannered men who treated us with nothing but love and respect, the law knows them as the most significant drug informants in US history.

  As kids, Peter and Junior learned the business from their father. When they were in their teens, they started off dealing drugs on the streets of Little Village, the heavily Mexican area of Chicago around where we all grew up. Over the next few years, they established a contact in Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel, and they graduated to become distributors rather than dealers. They set up their business, ran it like a well-oiled machine, and soon became Chicago’s most prominent traffickers.