Former ‘El Chapo’ trafficker now educates police

Bangkok Post Group

Margarito Flores and his brother once ran a multibillion-dollar narcotics distribution network in the Chicago area, working with notorious Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman. After gathering evidence that would help lead to El Chapo’s capture and 2019 conviction, Flores now works with an Illinois-based firm that trains narcotics investigators, agents and police officers across the U.S. Angela Johnston reports. - REUTERS

Transcript

00:00 I come from a family of drug traffickers.

00:02 This is Margarito Flores.

00:06 He used to work with one of the world's most notorious drug kingpins, Joaquin "El Chapo"

00:12 Guzman.

00:14 Reuters has agreed not to show Flores' face out of a concern for his safety.

00:18 By the time I was 17, I guess I graduated by then, right?

00:23 I had a degree in drug trafficking.

00:25 Flores went from counting packages of drugs as a child to running a multi-billion dollar

00:30 network with his twin brother in the Chicago area in the early 2000s, to eventual informant

00:38 who turned on El Chapo.

00:40 Now he's pulling back the curtain on his former trade secrets for law enforcement.

00:45 We're going to be going around the country and hopefully around the world and being able

00:49 to share some of these tactics.

00:52 That's where you see money and drugs.

00:57 Flores works with an Illinois-based firm called Dynamic Police Training.

01:01 At this session near Chicago, over 100 law enforcement personnel are learning about the

01:06 flow of bulk U.S. currency that finances trafficking.

01:09 So I'm talking about bulk U.S. currency that needs to be moved in semi-trucks.

01:17 That is what fuels drug cartels.

01:20 Between 2005 and 2008, the Flores brothers' distribution cell earned nearly $2 billion,

01:27 receiving more than 3,300 pounds of cocaine a month from the Beltran-Leyva and El Chapo's

01:33 Sinaloa cartels.

01:36 That's according to federal court documents and the U.S. Department of Justice.

01:40 Arrested in 2008, the brothers were sentenced to 14 years in prison.

01:45 For their cooperation, they served five.

01:49 Prosecutors credit them with providing unparalleled assistance for the government's case against

01:54 El Chapo.

01:55 As informants, the Flores brothers pressed record on an audio tape device and called

02:00 him to discuss a heroin shipment.

02:03 The phone call, for sure, we knew that it was going to, you know, change our lives,

02:09 because the government had let us know that there has never been a legally recorded or

02:14 intercepted call with El Chapo Guzman talking about a drug transaction in the United States.

02:20 What do they want to do?

02:21 The brothers were released in 2020.

02:24 Get rid of it.

02:25 Flores' law enforcement trainees told Reuters his insight helps them figure out the best

02:30 way to dismantle narcotics networks.

02:32 I don't know if there's anyone out there that could sit here today and understand the American

02:48 drug trade, the Mexican drug trade, as I have.

02:53 I live both sides of it, from every aspect.

02:57 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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