An infamous Chicago drug trafficker has testified at the trial of Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, revealing how he met the feared drug lord at a mountain compound and received shipments of cocaine in trucks filled with produce and even live sheep.
Pedro Flores, 37, testified on Tuesday at Guzman's trial in Brooklyn, saying that with his identical twin brother Margarito Flores he distributed some 60 tons of cocaine in the U.S. for the Sinaloa Cartel.
It was the first time that either brother had been seen in public since 2015, when they were both sentenced to 14 years in prison in a sweetheart deal for turning federal informants on the notorious cartel.
Flores testified that he had worked his way up from street dealing in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood, eventually running afoul of supplier in Mexico, who kidnapped him when he was on the run from a federal indictment.
Pedro Flores, 37, (above) testified on Tuesday at Guzman's (right) trial, saying that with his identical twin brother he distributed some 60 tons of cocaine in the U.S. for the Sinaloa Cartel
Pedro Flores (left) and his identical twin brother Margarito Flores (right) worked their way up from street dealing in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood to become major traffickers
Flores testified that the kidnappers handcuffed and blindfolded him, and took him to a remote house where they held him for several days until his brother secured his freedom, the Chicago Tribune reported.
His brother's first words to him, he said, were that he smelled bad and: 'I met Chapo.'
In exchange for dealing with the kidnapper, Guzman wanted the twins to use their experience distributing cocaine in the U.S. for the Sinaloa cartel, Flores said.
Flores described his first meeting with Guzman in 2005, saying he was taken by private plane to a rough landing strip on the incline of a mountain.
Driving from the airstrip to the compound, Flores said he saw grisly signs of the cartel's violence, including a naked man chained to a tree, who crouched and stared at the truck as it passed.
Accused Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman watches testimony in this courtroom sketch as he appears in Brooklyn federal court earlier this month
Guzman appeared from the thatched-roof concrete villa wearing a hat, with a shiny handgun in his waistband and an AK-47 propped nearby, and his first words were to tease Flores for wearing shorts, the court heard.
'He said with all that money, I couldn't afford the rest of the pants?' Flores said.
Another Sinaloa cartel leader, Ismael 'El Mayo' Zambada, was there for the negotiations, Flores said.
'You guys have my respect,' he quoted Zambada as saying. 'Imagine if you guys were triplets.'
Flores said that the brothers used their know-how to turn Chicago into a national distribution hub for the Sinaloa cartel, taking advantage of the city's central location.
As he grew more comfortable with Guzman, whom he called 'The Man', Flores began to give him regular gifts - gold plated guns, which he admits were too heavy and inspired by watching too many movies, as well as a gag gift of a pair of jean shorts like the ones he wore to their first meeting, given in a box shaped like a Viagra pill.
The drugs flowed north in trucks filled with fruit and vegetables - sometimes so much of them that it affected market prices in Chicago when the brothers dumped their cover goods, Flores said.
Authorities escort Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, center, from a plane to a waiting caravan of SUVs at Long Island MacArthur Airport, in Ronkonkoma, N.Y. in January 2017
One time, the brothers received a shipment of cocaine in a truck full of live sheep. Flores said they were baffled about what to do with the sheep, and eventually paid a friend $10,000 to get rid of the sheep.
'I'm looking at a bunch of live sheep,' Flores said. 'What are we gonna do with them?'
'I was concerned the cover loads were getting kinda weak,' he recalled.
Around 2008, Flores said he began to fear for his life when the cartel split into two factions, with both sides insisting that the twins deal exclusively with them.
The bloody civil war within the cartel meant 'we were in a lose-lose situation,' he said, 'because we had to choose a side.'
Flores contact the DEA and began working as an informant, even making recordings of Guzman with a digital recorder that he bought at a Mexican Radio Shack.
The jury is expected to hear the recordings in the coming days, as Flores continues his testimony.
Guzman has denied that he was the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, saying he is being set up by shady government cooperators. If convicted, he faces life in prison without parole.
Link hienalouca.comhttps://hienalouca.com/2018/12/19/chicago-drug-trafficker-testifies-about-meeting-el-chapo-in-his-secret-mountain-compound/
Main photo article An infamous Chicago drug trafficker has testified at the trial of Joaquin ‘El Chapo‘ Guzman, revealing how he met the feared drug lord at a mountain compound and received shipments of cocaine in trucks filled with produce and even live sheep.
Pedro Flores, 37, testified on Tuesday at...
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Dianne Reeves US News HienaLouca
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