Speaker 1: My name is Pedro Flores.
Speaker 2: I am giving this statement freely and voluntarily pursuing two
Speaker 2: proper letters with the United States Attorney's Office for the
Speaker 2: Eastern District of Wisconsin and the Northern District of Illinois.
Speaker 2: Although no promises have been made to me regarding my
Speaker 2: cooperation or the sentence I will ultimately receive. I am
Speaker 2: cooperating with the government and the hope of receiving a
Speaker 2: reduced sentence in a federal case where I have been indicted.
Speaker 1: I'm federal narcotics chargers.
Speaker 3: Do you believe in the justice system after what he's
Speaker 3: put you through?
Speaker 4: Well, I remember the prosecutors telling me when we argue
Speaker 4: certain things about our case, our chargers, and he said
Speaker 4: to me, the law is not there to protect criminals,
Speaker 4: is there to protect the innocent. So I'm going to
Speaker 4: take that for the word, because I'm I was a criminal.
Speaker 4: So the law wasn't there to benefit me, was there
Speaker 4: to go against me. So I have to respect that.
Speaker 4: You know, if I was on the opposite side of
Speaker 4: the law, you know, if I was on the right
Speaker 4: side of the law, maybe that.
Speaker 1: Law would protect me. And I hope it does, you.
Speaker 4: Know, But do I agree with every part of it.
Speaker 5: No, but you see people get twenty they kill twenty
Speaker 5: people and they just let them out because they got
Speaker 5: who they wanted, Yeah.
Speaker 1: What they wanted.
Speaker 4: Well, people, I'm gonna tell you there's a lot of
Speaker 4: people are gonna think that our sentence was unfair.
Speaker 1: Mhm.
Speaker 4: And I hope that in us talking about this, and
Speaker 4: they're gonna get a breag picture of see you letting
Speaker 4: me say what what's fair or not? But I'll take
Speaker 4: responsibility with do I believe in just a yes, because.
Speaker 1: I'm the one that put myself in that situation. If
Speaker 1: I would never have done that, then I're gonna have
Speaker 1: to deal with that. Right.
Speaker 6: Hey, it's and I'm Charlie Webster. This is ivanel Chapeau,
Speaker 6: the twins who brought down a Drugg Blood season two.
Speaker 1: You ever played that game telephone?
Speaker 5: For five years, that's the only way Jay and Pete
Speaker 5: were able to communicate with each other by sending messages
Speaker 5: to their wives. So far, their time in prison had
Speaker 5: been about cooperation, and they had no clue how much
Speaker 5: longer they be in for. The twin sentencing was originally
Speaker 5: put a hole until our chapel was caught.
Speaker 1: Now that el Chapot had been arrested. The brothers could
Speaker 1: get back together.
Speaker 6: But it wouldn't last long. Pete and j would soon
Speaker 6: learn their fate, but first they had to get to
Speaker 6: the courthouse in Chicago. Sat in a hangar and shackled,
Speaker 6: Pete watched anxiously as a plane of approached, the plane
Speaker 6: he hoped would have his brother on board.
Speaker 1: I can see the plane touching the private plane, and
Speaker 1: you know, it's sticky forever, like the land to spin around.
Speaker 4: But I remember, like they pull up and I'm sitting
Speaker 4: in the in the in the truck stuff.
Speaker 1: I see him, you know, pull the doors open. When
Speaker 1: they tell me come on, I rushed out. I remember,
Speaker 1: I'm just looking down trying to peek over the corner.
Speaker 4: I just I just see it's a great sweats and shoes,
Speaker 4: you know, And you know my brother was sitting there.
Speaker 1: What did that feel like? That was beautiful feeling it.
Speaker 1: You know that we got emotional right right soon we've
Speaker 1: seen the showy start crank. And did you do when
Speaker 1: you saw each other?
Speaker 4: Well, we couldn't, you know, I was I was seeing
Speaker 4: that we're tackle, so we couldn't do much.
Speaker 1: So we just robed our head together, our big.
Speaker 4: Head together, and and I like, bro, like after I
Speaker 4: was like fans in here, like, bro, why did you
Speaker 4: look like that?
Speaker 1: Right away? I went to I've been in his shoe
Speaker 1: and I know you don't think I get air cut
Speaker 1: like whatever. And it didn't work out that way.
Speaker 4: And you just, you know, like even the marshals that
Speaker 4: which travel was, they're just they'll stay quiet for us.
Speaker 1: I can just stare at him like what was that reaction?
Speaker 1: You know, be like.
Speaker 4: And then he sat in front of me and we
Speaker 4: just tried to We forgot about everyone else in the
Speaker 4: little three four hours. I felt like, you know, different things,
Speaker 4: and he's sitting in front of me, and.
Speaker 1: And then you know, I'm a nervous record of it.
Speaker 4: I'm I'm going to get sentenced, and I'm looking at
Speaker 4: my brother and I'm kind of why I'm staring at
Speaker 4: because he has this different He's day back, he's standing back,
Speaker 4: and he's like.
Speaker 1: You're hungry, bro, you know, give him something me Like
Speaker 1: it was because I.
Speaker 7: Did.
Speaker 3: Did you feel different to each other because you've not
Speaker 3: seen each other for that long and also you're been
Speaker 3: through so much in that period of time.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna say it.
Speaker 2: I noticed like, to me, he was too timid, he
Speaker 2: was too like I feel like he was letting them
Speaker 2: take a part of him. And it was in me
Speaker 2: that I was not gonna let that happen.
Speaker 1: So when I see my brother, he has this as
Speaker 1: I'm coming in and he's like, hey, give him something, man,
Speaker 1: he's gilt. What do you want to I'm like, day, bro,
Speaker 1: this is not your jet. These are us marshalls. Like
Speaker 1: they give two ships. What you said?
Speaker 4: I'm just like, no, no, they didn't. And I remember
Speaker 4: landing and I got sick. Remember you guys. Take you
Speaker 4: guys when we were taking out, when you started feeling better,
Speaker 4: I thought he looked hungry. So the marshals are there.
Speaker 4: It looks like he needed food. So hey, excuse me,
Speaker 4: bring me that food. Like you know they have fruit tree, it's.
Speaker 1: A private jet mart. Bring them to food.
Speaker 4: And then and what did they do? What do you
Speaker 4: want here? Here's your stuff? I get them the fruit,
Speaker 4: get them to drink, you know, like, hey, do you
Speaker 4: want anything? Any girls like yeah, And I'm looking like
Speaker 4: Jane disonergr jet and like, don't worry, you're good.
Speaker 1: I'm gonna make sure you're good.
Speaker 6: It might seem uncommon for prisoners to be transported on
Speaker 6: private jets, complete with fresh fruit and drinks. Even we
Speaker 6: were surprised to find out that it's actually a thriving business.
Speaker 6: On average, there's over six hundred flights a day shuttling
Speaker 6: prisoners around the US. That's nearly the same amount of
Speaker 6: flights that take off every day from Los Angeles International Airport.
Speaker 6: It's not quite as looks as you would think, though.
Speaker 6: The prisoners still have to be shackled on the plane.
Speaker 6: Jay was concerned about Pete. He looked like a shell
Speaker 6: of himself, timid, drastically underweight and broken. Eventually, after a
Speaker 6: nearly four hour flight, the twins were taken to a
Speaker 6: safe house in Chicago, expecting to be sentenced the next day. Instead,
Speaker 6: they ended up living at the safe house for months,
Speaker 6: continuing to cooperate on the El Chapo case, going over
Speaker 6: the same things with the government again and again and again.
Speaker 4: So we're like, well, at least we're going to be
Speaker 4: somewhere a little more comfortable for tonight, tomorrow or whatever.
Speaker 1: Right, and we get to the seafehouse in Chicago. It's
Speaker 1: a secret location.
Speaker 4: It's amazing where it's at you'd be surprised you put
Speaker 4: it somewhere like that can.
Speaker 1: Yeah, we can't discuss.
Speaker 4: I wouldn't want to discussed. It's like a bunker, so
Speaker 4: they take those backs. We were there for months. There's
Speaker 4: no windows or nothing, but it's a big, old metal,
Speaker 4: heavy door, and it's a room that looks someone like
Speaker 4: a cheap It looks exactly like a holiday and back
Speaker 4: in the day, exactly what everything.
Speaker 1: On holidays would have the same lamp, same set, no bathroom.
Speaker 4: Door, no bath flows doors, and no bunch of cameras inside,
Speaker 4: same televisions to old picks and old television. Same everybody
Speaker 4: thinking that we're gonna, you know, they're gonna let us
Speaker 4: be together, Like we're on the.
Speaker 1: Jet together there when we get today separated.
Speaker 4: And I remember at you know, asking the martian charge
Speaker 4: like can we be together?
Speaker 1: No, you can't be together. I'm like, I just got
Speaker 1: off the plane with him. Were just drove over together,
Speaker 1: Like what's the big deal?
Speaker 5: Now?
Speaker 1: What did that feel like? I felt again that helplessness
Speaker 1: of like thinking like he's my brother, we're on the
Speaker 1: same case. We're gonna be charged to we got a
Speaker 1: charge to get to the other.
Speaker 4: Benefits that we had earlier on the simple things that
Speaker 4: we took from Ghanda.
Speaker 1: We took ends, they took it from us. So I remember,
Speaker 1: just remember night. We right away, we didn't even care
Speaker 1: to eat. We just sat.
Speaker 4: We yelled at each other like it were in the
Speaker 4: hole from you know, from the crack of the door.
Speaker 1: Like we sat on the floor and he sent one
Speaker 1: you know, his next door to me. So we just
Speaker 1: yelled at each other.
Speaker 6: Despite being brought together to be sentenced, the brothers were
Speaker 6: still forced apart at every moment, separated into their own rooms.
Speaker 6: The only way they could talk to each other was
Speaker 6: to lie on the floor and shout through the crack
Speaker 6: at the bottom of the heavy metal doors.
Speaker 4: And the Martians come check on you ployment, even though
Speaker 4: they had cameras, you guys go, okay, hear the keys.
Speaker 1: That's kind of you. Hear keys, you know. And we
Speaker 1: had regular conversations.
Speaker 4: We were laughing, just different conversations about being nervous.
Speaker 1: And then they come get us, come on, you guys
Speaker 1: have a visit, and we walk into like a little
Speaker 1: meeting room like the same thing, like like the rooms
Speaker 1: that they make usweet. It's like two rooms which just
Speaker 1: take the bed out of one and it's like they
Speaker 1: got so fun and we come in.
Speaker 4: There's just the coverment, the agents and prosecutors, and we're like,
Speaker 4: what's going on? Like we're gonna go over some stuff.
Speaker 4: I mean, this cooperation stuff was heavy.
Speaker 7: It was work.
Speaker 4: If I got paid by the hour, I had to
Speaker 4: get some pretty good checks, and I felt like I
Speaker 4: was upset.
Speaker 1: To be honest, I was like, I'm done. I'm done
Speaker 1: with this help me ship. I just want to get sentenced.
Speaker 1: I'm over it. Dude, you gotta do I give you.
Speaker 1: I'm giving you my soul.
Speaker 4: Practically, to me, I felt like I was looking at
Speaker 4: someone who was defeating, who was giving up.
Speaker 1: That's what I looked at him. So I'm like, come on, like,
Speaker 1: come on, be like be strong. I saw you being nervous,
Speaker 1: and I saw you being that because you were I
Speaker 1: had intend you were.
Speaker 4: Confident enough, and I addressed that a couple of times
Speaker 4: to I'm looking at that, I'm not confident.
Speaker 1: To me, it's a test. We're about to get sentenced
Speaker 1: and they want help tomorrow they decide my future. What
Speaker 1: do you need? I have a family at home. I
Speaker 1: signed up for this. That's saying. So I was, you know,
Speaker 1: to me, I'm just still fighting to get home.
Speaker 4: I never stopped fighting, you know, if I were here
Speaker 4: till the last day, I thought every day used.
Speaker 1: To training that my brother would call it a tantrums.
Speaker 1: I call it fighting.
Speaker 4: I think for me to see us be alike so much,
Speaker 4: even when it came to personality a little bit at times,
Speaker 4: like energy or like whatever we give out. And for him,
Speaker 4: I felt like I was going one way, he was
Speaker 4: going the other. It was I think, trouble something for me,
Speaker 4: and then if you could kind of tell like it
Speaker 4: was trouble some for him to see me the opposite way,
Speaker 4: I felt like more meekness set into me, a little
Speaker 4: more humble, a little more like patient, and little more
Speaker 4: like you know, maybe just I embraced the part that
Speaker 4: I was like, you know, I'm just I'm.
Speaker 6: Yelling on Jack when you're the twenty seventh, twenty fifteen,
Speaker 6: after months of cooperating sensusing day finally arrived.
Speaker 4: I remember that morning I'm in the safe house night
Speaker 4: channe out the news like I just channed the local
Speaker 4: news in Chicago, and it's like that's the story.
Speaker 2: Al Chapo's biggest distributors, Pedro and Margarito Flores used stash
Speaker 2: houses in the suburbs off Chicago.
Speaker 4: The Flores twins could be Chicago's biggest cocaine and heroin
Speaker 4: traffickers ever.
Speaker 8: Chicago's infamous drug trafficking twins, Pedro Flores and his brother Margarito.
Speaker 9: They became the Cinelo Cartel's largest US distributors.
Speaker 4: To hit the drugs in some of New York's best neighborhoods.
Speaker 9: The twins, Pedro and Margarito Flores, have spent six years
Speaker 9: cooperating with the fans.
Speaker 4: At person get it was the big deal bout me
Speaker 4: getting sentenced. I also came to like like realize that
Speaker 4: it wasn't gonna be a.
Speaker 1: Like easy.
Speaker 4: It was, you know, the sentence he was gonna you know,
Speaker 4: I'm looking with the media was saying like it changed
Speaker 4: from us supposedly thinking we're doing something like good to
Speaker 4: a change.
Speaker 1: That we were still going to be the really no
Speaker 1: matter what. And I understood that.
Speaker 4: I was like, Okay, I just hope that the judge
Speaker 4: understands this and seese my cooperation and understands the risk
Speaker 4: we took and why we did this. I remember we're
Speaker 4: in this hallway and it's like twelve marshals and my
Speaker 4: brother side handkoff and he's behind me and the marshals
Speaker 4: are there, and Peter took me like, yo, I'm nervous,
Speaker 4: like and my people don't be nervous, like click, this
Speaker 4: is what.
Speaker 1: You're gonna say.
Speaker 10: And I'm like just trying to be the strong one right,
Speaker 10: Like I'm nervous too, but I'm not gonna show them.
Speaker 10: The marshals like, man, you guys said, you gotta just
Speaker 10: stop already.
Speaker 1: You're making a big deal about it. I said, I'm
Speaker 1: not like this.
Speaker 4: But that day, because I was worried about my brother,
Speaker 4: I was like, mind your fucking business.
Speaker 1: What is it to you. You're here to transport me.
Speaker 1: This is none of your fucking business. I said, you
Speaker 1: take this job. You do this every day. Might not
Speaker 1: be a big deal to you, but this is gonna change.
Speaker 1: This is our life. You're taking this.
Speaker 4: I was like, and I went on this rank and
Speaker 4: I'm and they're like, yo, just come out and come
Speaker 4: out here. And the marshall think that he's like, you're right,
Speaker 4: I apologize say for me. The heaviness of everything, we
Speaker 4: come to feeling the way of it again, like you
Speaker 4: know your your.
Speaker 1: Feet lies in the hands of someone else, like a
Speaker 1: psychological torture, as.
Speaker 4: Probably going into that courtroom any thinking I was and
Speaker 4: see a bunch of people that are gonna be staring
Speaker 4: at me. I'm gonna have to admit, you know, be
Speaker 4: sentien fell my wrongdoing. What's kind of heavy, you know,
Speaker 4: and talk of everything like those thoughts are going to
Speaker 4: my mind.
Speaker 1: My family.
Speaker 2: I couldn't stop thinking of there, the kids, everyone, like
Speaker 2: everything we've been through, you know, the unknown of the future,
Speaker 2: what's around the corner.
Speaker 1: You know, what did it feel like on that day.
Speaker 2: Like being kidnapped again, being like, you know, your life
Speaker 2: open in the air, like anything could happen.
Speaker 1: That just could have decided whatever he wanted.
Speaker 2: Those feelings have been like figuring for my life again
Speaker 2: were real And anyone who has you know, come face
Speaker 2: to face for the judge in a federal courtroom could
Speaker 2: understand what I'm saying to you know, come up to
Speaker 2: that to the bench of the judge where he's sitting
Speaker 2: up like he feels like he's ten feet you know, high,
Speaker 2: and the court room makes you feel so small. That
Speaker 2: real thought that where it says the United States versus
Speaker 2: you like, what chances does anyone have that fight the
Speaker 2: United States government? You know, and you feel small, you
Speaker 2: feel like vulnerable and weak.
Speaker 4: I feel like you're being brought out to the world
Speaker 4: to see you. And that was a little like that
Speaker 4: was not wreaking, like because my life had changed so much.
Speaker 4: I'm going in front of people actually again right that
Speaker 4: I can to decide your life.
Speaker 6: When a prisoner is sentenced, there is a guideline for
Speaker 6: how long they will spend in prison. The guideline is
Speaker 6: based on something called an offense level, which is determined
Speaker 6: by how serious the offenses. The maximum level is forty three,
Speaker 6: which would mean a life sentence. When the twins went
Speaker 6: into their sentencing, they had an offense level of fifty nine.
Speaker 6: That sixteen levels above the supposed maximum. Their cooperation meant
Speaker 6: levels could be taken off. It was described by government
Speaker 6: prosecutors as the most significant in a drug trafficking and
Speaker 6: money laundering context in the history of the district. In
Speaker 6: the end, the government recommended a sentence of a minimum
Speaker 6: ten years maximum sixteen. US District Chief Judge Reuben Costillo
Speaker 6: sentenced each of the brothers to fourteen years in prison
Speaker 6: plus five years supervised release. Thee said that were it
Speaker 6: not for their cooperation, he would have sentenced them to life,
Speaker 6: but noted that they were already living with their own
Speaker 6: life sentence.
Speaker 11: There is never a day in their lives where they
Speaker 11: won't have to look over their shoulder, the judge said
Speaker 11: in court this morning. There's never a time that they'll
Speaker 11: turn the ignition switch on a car and not wonder
Speaker 11: to themselves is it going to start or is it
Speaker 11: going to blow up. That's its own form of life sentence,
Speaker 11: and that's the part of the extraordinary nature of this case.
Speaker 6: Judge Castillo said the twins operation devastated the walls of
Speaker 6: Chicago and created a highway of drugs into the city.
Speaker 6: J and Pete's corporation led to criminal charges against the
Speaker 6: three bosses of the Cineloa cartel, El Chapo El Mayo,
Speaker 6: and Otturo Beltran Lava. In addition, there were fifty one
Speaker 6: other people charged as part of their cooperation, including their friends,
Speaker 6: people like Musico, who you might remember from the Strip
Speaker 6: Club Night in season one. He was the person on
Speaker 6: the other end of the phone organizing for the cartel
Speaker 6: to save the Florest family's lives when they were caught
Speaker 6: by the Mexican federales. Even Tommy was charged. Jay's best friend.
Speaker 6: He was the person who helped Jay get Pete back
Speaker 6: when Pete was kidnapped by l Chapo and sat with
Speaker 6: Jay that fateful night watching the John Gotti documentary that
Speaker 6: first gave Jay the idea to cooperate. A total of
Speaker 6: fifty four people had charges brought against them because of
Speaker 6: the Flores twins. Judd Castillo said, it's never too late
Speaker 6: to cooperate.
Speaker 2: I wanted to have like the best news and feel like, Okay,
Speaker 2: I'm going to be home in a year and a half.
Speaker 1: It didn't happen.
Speaker 6: Neil I was just halfway, had spent nearly seven years
Speaker 6: in prison before being sentenced, and they now had another
Speaker 6: seven years to serve. They were only halfway through.
Speaker 1: I was disappointed. I mean I was disappointed.
Speaker 2: We're leave in some ways because I felt like I
Speaker 2: was expecting like a lifetime supervision or something that would
Speaker 2: have been hard. You know, it's something hard to live with.
Speaker 2: I was given five years supervision.
Speaker 1: But again it wasn't for myself. It's just for my family,
Speaker 1: my wife, my kids.
Speaker 2: You know, we're just like halfway through at that point,
Speaker 2: not just six years, you know of not just your
Speaker 2: six years. It was six years of craziness. To be like, okay,
Speaker 2: we're halfway felt hard, you know, like starting all over.
Speaker 3: After the spoke to you and gave you your sentencing,
Speaker 3: and he he said, words to the effective you know,
Speaker 3: you're always gonna have to look over your shoulder.
Speaker 1: What did that feel like? What was it like for you?
Speaker 4: It's something already new, right, But when he said, I
Speaker 4: think it was more powerful.
Speaker 1: Right.
Speaker 4: Of course, it just feels bad because I know my
Speaker 4: situation and I'm going to hear those words, he stated
Speaker 4: over and over again, and I'm probably going to continue
Speaker 4: to hear them. And I understood, like early on in
Speaker 4: the situation, I put myself in ampuire me for like,
Speaker 4: I'm always going to be in prison by the fact
Speaker 4: of everything. And that's for in prison, for the fact
Speaker 4: that I cooperated right for me, regardless if I was
Speaker 4: getting benefits or not, it was for the good I
Speaker 4: thought I was doing.
Speaker 1: You know. So it's two.
Speaker 4: Different imprisonments, right, or two different life sentences in different ways.
Speaker 4: It was with them it would have been death, and
Speaker 4: here it was like a person and the life senses
Speaker 4: of worries and you know, worry about threats and your
Speaker 4: safety and your family safety. Even after all those years
Speaker 4: of growing and thinking about my case and think about
Speaker 4: everytiunity that just never going to say well with me
Speaker 4: that I put my family in danger. And sometimes I
Speaker 4: would think, like the fact that my wife and the
Speaker 4: rest of my family would be like.
Speaker 1: It's worth it, Like it kind of.
Speaker 4: Showed to me like how much they love me, and
Speaker 4: i'mous say wanted more that they were like, you know,
Speaker 4: I didn't understand that sometimes we were making decisions for
Speaker 4: our kids that they didn't get a chance to make
Speaker 4: kind of like well my dad did to me, right,
Speaker 4: And you know, I thought when I got sentence, I
Speaker 4: wasn't come out feeling good. Does that understandable, right, besides
Speaker 4: me getting rewarded with no matter what the sentence was,
Speaker 4: that I was going to come out like.
Speaker 1: Like feeling good. And I remember.
Speaker 4: That press conference were like, you know, they wanted to
Speaker 4: set us as an example. I didn't feel that it
Speaker 4: was going to be an example for other people to corporate.
Speaker 1: I totally didn't feel like that. I felt like it
Speaker 1: was just a reminder.
Speaker 4: I guess a little more of an extra torture for
Speaker 4: me and my family of what was lying ahead of me.
Speaker 2: I think that I was broken back inside. No grateful
Speaker 2: that it wasn't like longer, but I was broken, you know.
Speaker 2: I felt like I was like, it's overwhelmed with daughter
Speaker 2: Jana and everything she had been to already and the
Speaker 2: kids and how hopeful they were. And I remember I
Speaker 2: was sick, you know, I was throwing up like all
Speaker 2: the way back.
Speaker 4: You know.
Speaker 2: I was sick that I was gonna have to stay
Speaker 2: right of my brother and thinking that the next time
Speaker 2: I'll see him again, was it's gonna be who knows?
Speaker 3: Did you get to say anything to each other once
Speaker 3: you were sentenced, before you put a parted?
Speaker 2: Yeah, I thought they were gonna like take us straight
Speaker 2: back to our prisence, but they didn't. That night, we
Speaker 2: we stepped back in the safe house again and we.
Speaker 1: Talked and it was hard. I did feel like I
Speaker 1: see my brothers like saying like.
Speaker 2: Oh, well, what did we expect, like a little more
Speaker 2: hard about it or stronger about it? And I felt
Speaker 2: foken and it was hardly thinking that I was gonna
Speaker 2: be away in my gay When the judge sentence was
Speaker 2: sentence uh me and my brother to fourteen years.
Speaker 1: You know, I I.
Speaker 4: Was hurt for my family because I did think about Samuelpool.
Speaker 1: I guess I was wrong.
Speaker 4: I guess Chapel wasn't as a farm, you know, as
Speaker 4: John Gotti.
Speaker 6: After they were sentenced, Jay and Pete were once again separated.
Speaker 6: They were sent to different prisons at opposite ends of
Speaker 6: the country to serve out the rest of their time.
Speaker 6: Did it change anything for you when you did go
Speaker 6: back to the prison.
Speaker 2: Of course it did. I felt different that first day.
Speaker 2: I'll never forget, Like riding back at the prison. There's
Speaker 2: like three phone balls, like you know, and they're like
Speaker 2: glass phone balls in the prison. I remember like sitting
Speaker 2: in the middle one and I could see like the
Speaker 2: courtyard kind like from the windows, like everyone knew. And
Speaker 2: when I got back, like to court and they know
Speaker 2: what's going on. Everyone just kind of like game in
Speaker 2: my space. And I remember just breaking down on the
Speaker 2: phone and feeling so like her for her, like yeah,
Speaker 2: like what you say to your family when you say
Speaker 2: to your wife they're doing waiting there for you to
Speaker 2: come home and you can't come home. I can't explain
Speaker 2: to your words what that feels like. Only did they
Speaker 2: need you they're waiting for you, like literally like holding
Speaker 2: their breath for you to come home. I remember just
Speaker 2: thinking I could tell me about I tried my best.
Speaker 2: I did everything I could, everything I could possibly do.
Speaker 2: I did to make this easier house. And this is
Speaker 2: as easy as it's gonna get. There's nothing else in
Speaker 2: my mind I could have done at that time to
Speaker 2: help my situation, you know, and I feel like I
Speaker 2: had to live with that.
Speaker 7: It was a snowy, cold, snow dy so all the
Speaker 7: kids were were home. I remember I took them out
Speaker 7: in the morning and they wanted to go out and
Speaker 7: build snowman. And there was a couple of kids on
Speaker 7: the black that would come in and play with them
Speaker 7: in the front. So it was like it was not
Speaker 7: good that they were home that day. We we came
Speaker 7: in and we had like a little a lunch and
Speaker 7: then we played games, and a family member there was
Speaker 7: with me, Thank God for her. And you know, I
Speaker 7: remember Valerie texting me and telling me what was going on,
Speaker 7: and my my husband's attorney was very much keeping me
Speaker 7: updated and he didn't leave me in a dark at all,
Speaker 7: So you know, I was grateful for that when I
Speaker 7: heard that, you know, he got fourteen years. It was
Speaker 7: it was it was it was hard.
Speaker 1: It was like.
Speaker 7: It was like someone like I took all the wind
Speaker 7: out of me. Yeah, I felt I felt defeated, you know,
Speaker 7: I felt I felt I felt very much defeated, and
Speaker 7: I felt that I let down the kids too, and
Speaker 7: I felt let down.
Speaker 1: I felt.
Speaker 7: Angered and really regretful. I couldn't wait to talk to
Speaker 7: him after I had my moment of madness. You know,
Speaker 7: I kind of and I'm always good at that. I'll
Speaker 7: be at I'll be super angried and then learn how
Speaker 7: to just call myself and to soothe myself into back
Speaker 7: into like reality. And I wanted him to call so bad.
Speaker 7: When he got to the prison, he called me right
Speaker 7: away and there was complete silence, like for five minutes.
Speaker 7: It was just complete silence, and we were just crying
Speaker 7: and incomplete silence. I think that we couldn't even think,
Speaker 7: just the tears were just coming out. And when you
Speaker 7: cry like that, I felt like that's just pain really
Speaker 7: just built up inside. So you know, we did remind
Speaker 7: each other, you know, I reminded him that we're going
Speaker 7: to get through it, and we're going to be there
Speaker 7: for each other. And you know this is not going
Speaker 7: to change anything for us, and you know, I try
Speaker 7: to reassure him as much as I could while I'm
Speaker 7: reassuring myself, like letting myself know, like, yes, and you're
Speaker 7: gonna get through it. You're gonna you're gonna be okay.
Speaker 7: It's just it's just sad in that I just looked
Speaker 7: at the kids and knew, like they're gonna be They're
Speaker 7: gonna be teenagers by the time when I came home.
Speaker 8: I know, me and vib are very shocked by the
Speaker 8: fourteen years. And I feel like, you know, when they
Speaker 8: went to prison, they turned themselves in and they sacrificed
Speaker 8: themselves to do the right thing and to go to prison.
Speaker 8: I looked at them like they were so brave and
Speaker 8: like they were like so courageous to do that, to
Speaker 8: take a role that's never been walked before, and like
Speaker 8: it's like a path to the unknown. And then all
Speaker 8: of a sudden, it's like you know they're there and
Speaker 8: they're in prison, and it's like we're like, okay, well,
Speaker 8: I think in our mind we're like, okay, well, they
Speaker 8: never killed anyone. They weren't violent, you know, they didn't
Speaker 8: do drugs like they didn't drink like we would. You know,
Speaker 8: they're they're justify we would justify like who they were
Speaker 8: as men. They weren't womanizers. You know, they were great fathers,
Speaker 8: they were great husbands. And I remember when Jay and
Speaker 8: Peter coming back from sentencing, you know, I was devastating
Speaker 8: with the fourteen years. I'm like, wait what And you know,
Speaker 8: because I'm looking at it like other people who are
Speaker 8: in the same prisons with them, you know, they have
Speaker 8: all these bodies lined up, and I'm like, how does
Speaker 8: that even like happen? Like how are they getting out?
Speaker 8: And you got fourteen years? And Jay was like, you
Speaker 8: know what, now we live in a bubble. We live
Speaker 8: in a fucking bubble, Like this needs to stop. Like no,
Speaker 8: When I was standing there in front of the judge
Speaker 8: and he has his cloak on and he's sitting up
Speaker 8: and you see the American flag in the background, you
Speaker 8: see how power fool he is, he said, I felt
Speaker 8: fear and I realized at that point, like, no, we
Speaker 8: were selling drugs. What we did was wrong.
Speaker 2: And I remember that everybody would always tell you these
Speaker 2: prison stories about what they say about prison, and they'll
Speaker 2: tell you that the old timers have been in there
Speaker 2: for twenty five years and thirty years.
Speaker 1: You know that they would always explain to the.
Speaker 2: New inmates that that there's two kinds of inmates, the
Speaker 2: ones who told and the ones who wish they told,
Speaker 2: and that would think about it. And I thought that
Speaker 2: I didn't leave nothing on the table, like I gave
Speaker 2: it up my own. And it's weird because that was
Speaker 2: a victory no matter what for me. You know, for me,
Speaker 2: I couldn't have a release date.
Speaker 1: That weekend.
Speaker 2: They you know, they put me in the sugaring you know,
Speaker 2: for safety reason, so I didn't feel gay.
Speaker 6: Six months after the twins were sentenced, there was a
Speaker 6: surprise in store for Jay and Pete, and it wasn't
Speaker 6: a good one.
Speaker 1: I was leaning myself.
Speaker 2: They opened up the submorbers early that got five am exactly,
Speaker 2: and one of the guys that messed with he came
Speaker 2: and he was like I could tell he hadn't even
Speaker 2: been to sleep.
Speaker 1: He like matting my door. He opens him. Hey, Pete, Pete,
Speaker 1: wake up. You know it's like, hey, fool travel scape.
Speaker 2: Well yeah, manternal teens ill it like I see it
Speaker 2: in the bottom line, and I'm like, get the no
Speaker 2: fucking Way he escaped, Like you're like, like, for.
Speaker 1: Real, man, turn the TV up.
Speaker 2: I turned the TV on. It's a Saturday morning, and
Speaker 2: I ain't seen the bottom line. This is fucking tumble.
Speaker 2: It was in a drug lord or whatever last see then,
Speaker 2: So at Friday night, at whatever time it just was,
Speaker 2: it just didn't feel real that this was happening, like Norway,
Speaker 2: And I remember getting up and they don't turn out
Speaker 2: phones on til like it seven o'clock or something.
Speaker 1: Try.
Speaker 2: I had to wait till the phones around, and I
Speaker 2: remember calling Dad and I waking her up.
Speaker 1: Like, hey, he escaped? Shit? Who went in Chapel shait?
Speaker 1: What I remember it just watching.
Speaker 9: The music late last night, Joaquin el Chapo Guzman broke
Speaker 9: out of a maximum security prison about sixty miles from
Speaker 9: Mexico City.
Speaker 2: Everyone's watching, everyone's like coming back. You see chap escape,
Speaker 2: And it was like unbelievable that they were really reporting that.
Speaker 2: When you think about a situation, you know the story
Speaker 2: behind these kind of people's that they do these crazy
Speaker 2: things because they believe they could do it. They believe
Speaker 2: they could do the impossible things. And evil genius is
Speaker 2: still a genius. Like I don't care how you put
Speaker 2: it like, and then they got he got the boss
Speaker 2: that even attempt it, and you know, he got nothing
Speaker 2: to lose, And I could see why he does that.
Speaker 2: You know, you know, mindset, well, you got nothing to lose,
Speaker 2: you're gonna you might as well, you know, take the
Speaker 2: half court shot, swimming for the home run like you're down,
Speaker 2: you know, you might as well try. You know that
Speaker 2: little saying that comes to mind that they say that
Speaker 2: you miss one hundred percent of the shots you don't take,
Speaker 2: and when you have nothing to lose, And I've felt
Speaker 2: like that before, like being your kid and and.
Speaker 1: Like I have nothing to lose. What like, what's the
Speaker 1: worst to get happen?
Speaker 2: You know, at that time, I was like, I'm younger,
Speaker 2: i haven't really lived much, I'm naive, and I'm they're
Speaker 2: probably the wisdom, you know, real wisdom at that time.
Speaker 12: You know, just when you said that it may have
Speaker 12: been caught, right, you're right, But the majority of people
Speaker 12: would think, now that's not one. It's not gonna workt
Speaker 12: until I'm going to get caught, And they wouldn't even try.
Speaker 12: The majority of people even try because they write themselves
Speaker 12: off before they even try and do something and.
Speaker 2: That's why I could relate to it because I feel like,
Speaker 2: if you know, if I came to someone in my
Speaker 2: own life and say, look, you know, i've sold over
Speaker 2: one hundred thirty tons of cocain.
Speaker 1: I'm a wanton person.
Speaker 2: You know.
Speaker 1: My brother and I have been on the run for years, and.
Speaker 2: What if I attempted to do this, this, this, this,
Speaker 2: and that they would be like, you're fucking crazy for
Speaker 2: even trying it. To see the genius of some of
Speaker 2: the people we thought with and the things they do
Speaker 2: to be successful, it's amazing, okay. And I feel like
Speaker 2: those are the kind of people that make great things happen.
Speaker 7: You know.
Speaker 2: I wish that they could be brought into some of
Speaker 2: these legit the legit world, into the legitimate enterprises and
Speaker 2: see what they could do.
Speaker 6: This is not the first time El Chapo has escaped
Speaker 6: from prison, nor is it the first time he's escaped
Speaker 6: from this particular prison, El Altiplano, a maximum security prison
Speaker 6: east of Mexico City. Back in two thousand and one,
Speaker 6: El Chapo bribed multiple prison offices to wheel him out
Speaker 6: in a laundry cart. This time, he escaped through a
Speaker 6: mile long tunnel, but it wasn't just any old tunnel.
Speaker 6: Hiding below Chapo shower in his cell was a three
Speaker 6: story deep hole and it was a ladder that he
Speaker 6: used to climb down into the tunnel.
Speaker 13: You know, he was literally in a well fortified, constructed
Speaker 13: prison designed to prevent such an escape. They didn't anticipate
Speaker 13: him coming from underground, so.
Speaker 14: That's exactly what he did. Almost from the moment he
Speaker 14: was delivered here to Altiplano Prison. In February twenty fourteen,
Speaker 14: a construction crew from his Sena Low cartel began digging
Speaker 14: a tunnel to free him.
Speaker 6: El Chappo's exact location was known because a smart watch
Speaker 6: with the GPS was smuggled to him. The tunnel dig
Speaker 6: was coordinated by el Chappo's wife, Emma Coronel Iesboro, and
Speaker 6: his four sons, and it took around a year. It
Speaker 6: was a well engineered tunnel that even included lighting and ventilation.
Speaker 6: After el Chappo climbed down the ladder, he got onto
Speaker 6: a motorbike attached to a track and was then pulled
Speaker 6: to the end using an elaborate pulley system. Within a week,
Speaker 6: he was back in Sineloa, relaxing in his palatial home
Speaker 6: with his family and Almayo, the other leader of the cartel.
Speaker 2: As a time, close by Is said that he escaped
Speaker 2: from my malon tunnel. You're like, what's like, what's next?
Speaker 4: My next thing is that they're really not going to
Speaker 4: catch him next time, like that they they're not going
Speaker 4: to catch up, Like look what he did to this game.
Speaker 6: Surviving l Chapo The Twins Who Brought Down a Drug
Speaker 6: Lord Season two is hosted by Curtis fifty cent Jackson
Speaker 6: and me Charlie Webster, Produced by myself and Jackson mcclennan,
Speaker 6: Assistant producer and research support by Katie Hurtz. Edit and
Speaker 6: sound designed by Nico Polella. Theme music and original score
Speaker 6: by Ryan Sorenson. It's executive produced by Curtis fifty cent
Speaker 6: Jackson and Me Charlie Webster. Curtis fifty cent Jackson presents
Speaker 6: a Lionsgate Sound and G Unit audio production exclusively for
Speaker 6: iHeart Podcasts