WEBVTT - Episode 1 - Little Village 0:00:03.160 --> 0:00:05.520 The law is not there to protect criminals. Is there 0:00:05.519 --> 0:00:08.280 to protect the innocent. I was a criminal, so the 0:00:08.360 --> 0:00:11.200 law wasn't there to benefit me. Is there the core? 0:00:11.840 --> 0:00:13.520 So I have to respect that. You know, if I 0:00:13.560 --> 0:00:15.840 was on the opposite side of the law, you know, 0:00:15.840 --> 0:00:17.560 if I was on the right sad of law, maybe 0:00:17.560 --> 0:00:22.279 that law would protect me. There's no one else who 0:00:22.320 --> 0:00:25.400 were in our shoes. TA could sit next year and 0:00:25.520 --> 0:00:28.640 tell you this. I'm alive, I'm here and where my family. 0:00:28.920 --> 0:00:31.720 Things ain't the way I wish they were, But it's 0:00:31.760 --> 0:00:34.640 like that for in every situation. Right, I'm sharing the 0:00:34.680 --> 0:00:44.800 story with you. Right, Oh, I got me a chap couple. 0:00:45.040 --> 0:01:09.080 Oh yeah, I can. I'm busy straight next Wednesday Night. 0:01:09.200 --> 0:01:11.920 Now to the inside story of two Chicago brothers who 0:01:12.000 --> 0:01:18.080 turned on El Chapo, Chicago's infamous drug trafficking twins Pedro 0:01:18.160 --> 0:01:22.360 Flores and his brother Margarito. Growing up in Little Village, 0:01:22.520 --> 0:01:25.280 the twins learned the drug trade at the age of seven. 0:01:26.440 --> 0:01:29.720 Chicago is a wonderful place to become a drug distributor. 0:01:30.680 --> 0:01:33.600 The two important more than thirty tons of cocaine from 0:01:33.600 --> 0:01:36.480 El Chapo and sent close to a billion dollars in 0:01:36.520 --> 0:01:41.039 cash from Chicago to the Sinaloa cartel. The two hid 0:01:41.120 --> 0:01:45.440 the drugs in some of New York's best neighborhoods, and 0:01:45.480 --> 0:01:48.840 the pantheon of drug prosecutions in the history of the 0:01:48.880 --> 0:01:53.480 Northern District of Illinois, this case stands at the highest level. 0:01:54.480 --> 0:01:58.960 Federal agents arrested twin brothers from Chicago's Little Village neighborhood, 0:01:59.080 --> 0:02:03.760 Pedro and Mark Arrito Flores. We're El Chapo's biggest distributorsy 0:02:04.920 --> 0:02:08.880 my name is Pedro Flores. I'm given this statement freely 0:02:08.919 --> 0:02:13.280 and voluntarily. My name is Margarito Flores Jr. I was 0:02:13.320 --> 0:02:17.400 born in Chicago, Illinois, and Julee tak One. I have 0:02:17.480 --> 0:02:22.880 a twin brother named Pedro Flores. Since approximately m brother, 0:02:23.280 --> 0:02:27.280 Argarrio Flores and I have been responsible for the distribution 0:02:27.360 --> 0:02:31.680 of thousands of kilogans of cokine in Chicago, Illinois and elsewhere. 0:02:32.560 --> 0:02:48.240 Thousands and thousands and thousands. We were distributing in Chicago, Illinois, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Minneapolis, Minnesota, Detroit, Michigan, Cincinnati, Ohio, Columbus, Ohio, Louisa, Kentucky, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, 0:02:48.440 --> 0:02:53.680 New York City, Washington, Dunsey, Atlanta, Georgia, Los Angeles, California, 0:02:53.880 --> 0:02:57.519 and Vancouver, British Columbia. Bargaryo and I have acted as 0:02:57.560 --> 0:03:01.920 partners in the drug business, worked collectively with a cartel 0:03:02.080 --> 0:03:07.760 known as a Federation. The federation was headed by Hawk Engles, 0:03:07.840 --> 0:03:13.880 mat Laura White, Noise Chapel where Chapel was mine, and 0:03:14.000 --> 0:03:20.200 members of his organization. Let me tell your story about 0:03:20.280 --> 0:03:24.000 two brothers. If you think this is just another Knockos story, 0:03:24.040 --> 0:03:27.880 you're wrong. Sure it's got all the action and drama 0:03:27.919 --> 0:03:30.920 you'd normally expect, but at the end of the day, 0:03:31.320 --> 0:03:34.360 it's about two boys born into a life they didn't choose. 0:03:35.800 --> 0:03:37.880 It made me think about how my life could have 0:03:38.000 --> 0:03:41.600 gone if not for music. I started dealing on the 0:03:41.640 --> 0:03:44.160 streets of Queens at the age of twelve. At the 0:03:44.200 --> 0:03:47.920 same time over in Chicago, seven year old identical twins, 0:03:47.960 --> 0:03:52.240 Margolito Junior Flores and Pedro Flores, we're learning the family 0:03:52.280 --> 0:03:57.480 trade these days. They go by Ja and Pete randomly. 0:03:57.520 --> 0:04:00.200 I met these two after I had a necklace old 0:04:00.240 --> 0:04:04.800 and in Chicago completely green projects June spinning piece the 0:04:05.000 --> 0:04:08.200 young Bucks. Stupid ass was dumb enough to wear to 0:04:08.320 --> 0:04:11.200 their neighborhood to us to completely Green projects when the 0:04:11.200 --> 0:04:14.200 police don't go for no reason, he decided to go. 0:04:15.520 --> 0:04:18.560 So after they recovered the piece and got it back 0:04:18.600 --> 0:04:23.040 to me, we developed a relationship. I'm excited to share 0:04:23.040 --> 0:04:28.560 this story. Which how would you describe Pete? I think 0:04:28.560 --> 0:04:31.840 he's one wasn't touching person's like, why all offer me? 0:04:33.360 --> 0:04:38.520 How would you describe Jay? The most intelligent personally? I know, 0:04:40.040 --> 0:04:41.720 I mean that doesn't know. We're not all that people. 0:04:42.360 --> 0:04:44.960 I couldn't tell the story I'm all so I called 0:04:45.000 --> 0:04:48.359 the friend, Charlie Webster. She's one of the best journalists 0:04:48.400 --> 0:04:50.320 I know in the person I could rely on to 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:53.400 do the story of some justice. Vifty called me up 0:04:53.480 --> 0:04:55.840 and introduced me to the brothers over zoom. Because we 0:04:55.920 --> 0:04:59.080 weren't allowed to meet in person. There's a condition of 0:04:59.160 --> 0:05:02.440 that proble. The brothers aren't allowed to be together, and 0:05:02.560 --> 0:05:05.360 to be honest with you, even if they were, it 0:05:05.440 --> 0:05:08.680 would mean more danger for them anyway. Getting them in 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:11.080 the same room to be able to do this it 0:05:11.240 --> 0:05:14.640 was not just a logistical nightmare, but also carried a 0:05:14.800 --> 0:05:19.040 real risk of their lives. It took me around six months, 0:05:19.760 --> 0:05:23.800 but eventually I managed to arrange a secret location for 0:05:23.880 --> 0:05:27.960 us all to talk in. Imagine a safe house hidden 0:05:27.960 --> 0:05:32.920 in plain sight. Inside the brothers Pete and Ja, their 0:05:33.160 --> 0:05:38.919 entire families, me and outside a couple of bodyguards mine 0:05:38.960 --> 0:05:43.320 the door. It's twenty one people crammed into this safe 0:05:43.400 --> 0:05:46.760 house and if you walk past, you would never have known. 0:05:54.320 --> 0:05:59.120 Tons of drugs going through to these two twins. They 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:03.359 create them distribution operation to send it to other parts 0:06:03.520 --> 0:06:08.360 of the country. Certainly the Flower of his brothers cooperating 0:06:08.400 --> 0:06:12.160 and providing all the information, uh literally in tons of 0:06:12.279 --> 0:06:15.839 cocaine and billions of dollars, and then quite frankly getting 0:06:15.960 --> 0:06:19.120 Chapel for the first time on a wire tap where 0:06:19.160 --> 0:06:23.240 he's negotiating for Keelos of heroin secretly recorded the drug 0:06:23.320 --> 0:06:26.560 lord before turning himself into the d e A. We're 0:06:26.600 --> 0:06:29.240 not talking about kelos. We are talking about tons of 0:06:29.800 --> 0:06:34.440 cocaine that went through their distribution system. There is never 0:06:34.440 --> 0:06:36.440 a day in their lives where they won't have to 0:06:36.520 --> 0:06:38.920 look over their shoulder. There's never a time that they'll 0:06:38.960 --> 0:06:41.359 turn the ignition switch on a car and not wonder 0:06:41.440 --> 0:06:43.160 to themselves is it going to start or is it 0:06:43.240 --> 0:06:45.800 going to blow up? That's its own form of life sentence, 0:06:45.880 --> 0:06:48.880 and that's a part of the extraordinary nature of this case. 0:06:49.760 --> 0:06:52.479 There's a family drama regalis the how you look at 0:06:52.520 --> 0:06:57.200 it because ups bringing your brother, your dad, and then 0:06:57.279 --> 0:07:01.320 you got the significance is you really reationships. What obstacles 0:07:01.360 --> 0:07:03.760 are in front of you obviously pulled you guys closer 0:07:03.839 --> 0:07:06.480 to each other every time. And I always say people 0:07:06.520 --> 0:07:09.479 were like plants, we gotta growth, and you guys managed 0:07:09.520 --> 0:07:12.720 to do that. And it's tough to do that if 0:07:12.760 --> 0:07:17.920 it's such a good business. Why they turned I'm Curtis 0:07:18.040 --> 0:07:20.720 to st Jackson and I'm char Webster and then this 0:07:20.840 --> 0:07:23.560 is surviving old chap that's once you brought down the 0:07:23.640 --> 0:07:57.280 drug board. What happens when you decide to turn over 0:07:57.320 --> 0:08:00.040 the most wanted man in the world. How do you 0:08:00.120 --> 0:08:01.880 get close enough to even be able to do that 0:08:01.960 --> 0:08:06.080 in the first place. Identical twins Peter and j Flores 0:08:06.240 --> 0:08:09.440 have just spent the last fourteen years in secret prison locations. 0:08:10.240 --> 0:08:12.160 Much of the time was spent on the twenty three 0:08:12.240 --> 0:08:16.840 hour lockdown. The story made international news because they are 0:08:16.880 --> 0:08:20.440 the reason El Chapel is now in prison, and they've 0:08:20.480 --> 0:08:25.000 never spoken publicly until now. But their story doesn't start 0:08:25.560 --> 0:08:29.240 or end without Chapo. So to understand how we get there, 0:08:29.720 --> 0:08:32.440 we need to rewind to the beginning, to the streets 0:08:32.520 --> 0:08:48.360 of Chicago, in the neighborhoods called Little Village. Our production 0:08:48.400 --> 0:08:51.280 to to the drug business started at that seven years 0:08:51.320 --> 0:08:55.360 old woman that came for prison. How long was he 0:08:55.440 --> 0:09:00.599 in prisoned? Seven years? Pete and Ja were born on 0:09:00.760 --> 0:09:05.000 June twelve. They're the youngest of seven children and the 0:09:05.160 --> 0:09:08.680 only twins in the family. They often speak as one. 0:09:09.280 --> 0:09:12.320 They were only really ever known as twin in the singular. 0:09:13.040 --> 0:09:16.120 So we won't keep bothering you by identifying which twinnies 0:09:16.160 --> 0:09:19.439 which unless we really need to. While they might look 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:23.520 the same, they are very different people. You'll soon start 0:09:23.600 --> 0:09:27.080 to figure it out. My father ends up being arrested 0:09:27.160 --> 0:09:34.920 and leader seven kids. Their father, Margarito Flores Sr. Was 0:09:35.000 --> 0:09:38.160 a well known drug trafficker who married their mother at 0:09:38.240 --> 0:09:41.560 the age of twenty two when she was just twelve 0:09:41.679 --> 0:09:49.840 years old. Margharito Sr. Was arrested in March one, three 0:09:49.920 --> 0:09:52.920 months before the twin boys were born. He was caught 0:09:53.000 --> 0:09:56.280 selling a million dollars worth of heroin to an undercover agent. 0:09:57.120 --> 0:09:59.120 He asked not to be handcuffed in front of his 0:09:59.200 --> 0:10:05.600 pregnant wife, concerned she might miscarry the twins. At that time, 0:10:05.720 --> 0:10:08.360 like Mexicans don't get divorced. They just deal with it. 0:10:09.920 --> 0:10:14.360 They don't know what divorce is. What was like him, 0:10:16.360 --> 0:10:23.360 It was your typical like Mexican relationship. I think, where 0:10:23.520 --> 0:10:27.280 the man is the the head of the household and 0:10:28.120 --> 0:10:33.320 the woman just holds the house together, cooking, taking care 0:10:33.320 --> 0:10:36.920 of the kids. That's what she was supposed to do. 0:10:37.400 --> 0:10:41.040 But when my dad was away, she became everything without 0:10:41.080 --> 0:10:46.160 even knowing it. I still remember me my brother, like 0:10:46.840 --> 0:10:50.000 when my dad came home, we're like, we knew we 0:10:50.080 --> 0:10:53.480 had a dad right with COVID, but we didn't know 0:10:53.520 --> 0:10:55.600 what it was like. So we thought we were getting 0:10:55.600 --> 0:10:57.360 like a reward. Now we're gonna be like everybody else 0:10:59.520 --> 0:11:05.480 in our life of change, but not for good comes home. 0:11:05.880 --> 0:11:09.280 My older brothers are gang members. My mother doesn't know 0:11:09.360 --> 0:11:12.679 what a gang is. We're talking about, you know, any right. 0:11:12.760 --> 0:11:15.240 She she doesn't know that my brother's be King ganger, 0:11:15.320 --> 0:11:19.000 but she thinks that's there's just something they do. At 0:11:19.040 --> 0:11:22.000 the time, the Black and Gold of the Latin King's 0:11:22.080 --> 0:11:26.400 Gang dominated the streets of Chicago, but it was little 0:11:26.520 --> 0:11:29.920 village known as Mexico of the Midwest. That was the 0:11:30.080 --> 0:11:33.520 main battleground for the bad blood between the Latin Kings 0:11:33.800 --> 0:11:37.360 and their main rival, the Two Sixes. The rules of 0:11:37.400 --> 0:11:42.760 the Latin Kings demand members engage in violence. They are 0:11:42.840 --> 0:11:46.160 still the biggest and one of the most violent Hispanic 0:11:46.240 --> 0:11:50.120 and Latino street and prison gangs in the world. And 0:11:50.280 --> 0:11:54.360 Peter and Jay's older brother, Armando was their dope peddler. 0:11:59.320 --> 0:12:02.160 He's a high ranking member Bland King's at the time 0:12:02.400 --> 0:12:06.319 in the neighborhood, and he had like all this gang 0:12:06.559 --> 0:12:09.400 graffiti all over the basement where they're going to take 0:12:09.440 --> 0:12:12.320 pictures and and my mom would be like, oh, your 0:12:12.320 --> 0:12:15.959 friends are here, like it was okay because she didn't understand. 0:12:16.040 --> 0:12:18.839 But my dad came on from prison like what he's 0:12:18.880 --> 0:12:24.120 like these these guys, I mean he's with them. He 0:12:24.240 --> 0:12:25.360 was like up, said with my mom like what were 0:12:25.400 --> 0:12:27.360 you doing? My mom like what are you talking about? 0:12:27.400 --> 0:12:31.920 And kicked my older brothers at the house that week. Wow, 0:12:32.600 --> 0:12:34.960 And now we had a new set of rules, which 0:12:35.080 --> 0:12:38.640 was harsh because my dad, who's had that strong voice, 0:12:40.520 --> 0:12:45.200 he would say that we're being raised to be almost 0:12:45.240 --> 0:12:49.600 like women because we're being raised by women. And since 0:12:49.720 --> 0:12:52.719 day one he said, I'm gonna change them. So that 0:12:52.920 --> 0:12:56.679 came with chores and just be birmless stuff that me 0:12:56.720 --> 0:13:02.760 and my brother weren't as a kid. I hate that 0:13:02.880 --> 0:13:06.480 he came all right, this is James us being kids. 0:13:07.240 --> 0:13:10.160 They're like got shifted, that got turned upside, you know down. 0:13:10.280 --> 0:13:21.280 Then we gotta do chores, you know, throughout the garbage. 0:13:21.320 --> 0:13:22.959 And he would make us do like clean up the 0:13:23.120 --> 0:13:25.040 you know, pick up the garbage from the street. And 0:13:25.240 --> 0:13:28.560 we were done too fast, but pick up the one 0:13:28.600 --> 0:13:38.719 for the full block. Right, yeah, I'll tell you my 0:13:38.800 --> 0:13:40.679 best friend growing up, Right, he looks very close and 0:13:40.720 --> 0:13:45.240 street for away. Growing up, he had to be his 0:13:45.320 --> 0:13:47.640 pops are very strict, right, he had to be on 0:13:48.240 --> 0:13:51.000 his stoop as the street light came on. So at 0:13:51.040 --> 0:13:53.839 certain days when you go to school early far in 0:13:53.960 --> 0:13:56.800 the year, the street light would come on before it's 0:13:56.840 --> 0:14:09.480 done outside. So we've been playing touch football. He run 0:14:09.600 --> 0:14:11.000 like on the catch the ball and he would just 0:14:11.120 --> 0:14:14.719 run past all the way back to the stool. We're like, 0:14:14.800 --> 0:14:19.720 what the fun? But we he just his dad growing up. 0:14:19.760 --> 0:14:21.960 I'd be like, man, I hate that mother kill him. 0:14:22.040 --> 0:14:23.760 He was like looking at me like you're gonna do 0:14:23.880 --> 0:14:30.120 it later. You do appreciate it because those things. Look, 0:14:30.800 --> 0:14:33.080 he was three years older than me and he couldn't 0:14:33.160 --> 0:14:35.400 leave the block. So when I came back and I 0:14:35.480 --> 0:14:37.640 had all these experiences, I was talking to him about 0:14:37.840 --> 0:14:40.200 it was a known drug location for twenty years that 0:14:40.280 --> 0:14:41.840 I was up to block. To him back, this is 0:14:41.880 --> 0:14:44.400 when I'm twelve seeing all of the ship you ain't 0:14:44.400 --> 0:14:47.160 supposed to be seeing. And he didn't get a chance 0:14:47.200 --> 0:14:49.080 to see it because he had to be on the block. 0:14:51.000 --> 0:14:52.880 They went to become a lawyer. The way he was 0:14:52.960 --> 0:14:56.880 studying for law, and very becose. It prevented the things didn't. 0:14:57.640 --> 0:14:59.880 But your see the difference, you see, Like you said, 0:15:00.320 --> 0:15:02.880 I was going there at our years old to see 0:15:02.920 --> 0:15:05.840 some ship that he was in seat with me and 0:15:05.920 --> 0:15:08.480 my brother. The ship we were seen was at home. 0:15:09.360 --> 0:15:20.560 Where do you go from there? At that time eighties, nineties, 0:15:21.040 --> 0:15:27.520 dang violence all the time high. My dad would tell 0:15:27.600 --> 0:15:29.360 us like, don't be here on with these sucking bumps 0:15:30.160 --> 0:15:31.920 all the time. You're not gonna be one of these bumps. 0:15:31.960 --> 0:15:33.440 You're not gonna be one of these bumbs on the corner. 0:15:34.280 --> 0:15:36.240 And uh, I guess we were not going to be 0:15:36.320 --> 0:15:38.400 one of those bumps in the corner. I guess we're 0:15:38.400 --> 0:15:41.320 gonna be something else, and which is weird. He would 0:15:41.320 --> 0:15:43.280 say that at the same time and be like, now, 0:15:43.320 --> 0:15:44.960 go get me those pounds, or go get me that 0:15:45.040 --> 0:15:46.960 bag of money, and go go give me those guns. 0:15:47.040 --> 0:15:53.240 You know. But I don't even think we thought marijuana 0:15:53.360 --> 0:15:57.360 was like a bad thing, right, well, else it was 0:15:57.440 --> 0:16:01.680 a plant that stunk. There's no Internet, there's no people 0:16:01.720 --> 0:16:04.920 explaining to you about what drug dealing is. You know, 0:16:05.040 --> 0:16:07.800 here we are in with this stinking in the middle 0:16:07.800 --> 0:16:11.720 of Americans, in the big city metropolis like Chicago with 0:16:12.840 --> 0:16:16.240 the drug business, right and I mean, you know, my 0:16:16.360 --> 0:16:19.720 dad went from heroin f marijuana. I guess because it 0:16:19.800 --> 0:16:23.760 was the easiest. Was like I could invest you know, 0:16:24.360 --> 0:16:26.720 tan grand or five grand and come back and make 0:16:26.960 --> 0:16:30.200 you know, a hundred grand. It was like, as soon 0:16:30.240 --> 0:16:32.920 as he got home, he was like back at it 0:16:33.400 --> 0:16:36.280 to that look we looked back when you didn't even 0:16:36.360 --> 0:16:40.880 wait a year. Their father began the twins education at 0:16:40.920 --> 0:16:43.760 the age of seven by taking them on his regular 0:16:43.880 --> 0:16:47.560 runs from Little Village, Chicago across the Mexican border them 0:16:47.600 --> 0:16:51.320 back again. All look, it was a three thousand mile 0:16:51.560 --> 0:17:03.880 round trip when we first it. Mentally, I remember and 0:17:04.280 --> 0:17:05.960 really he was like next, you know, we're in the 0:17:06.040 --> 0:17:08.880 middle of a desert, a desert, and there there's other 0:17:08.960 --> 0:17:11.440 cars and they're like all on the open and they're loading, 0:17:11.880 --> 0:17:15.960 they're loading, they're they're compressing marijuana bills, they're they're drying 0:17:16.040 --> 0:17:19.240 up the actually the drying up like it's a whole 0:17:19.280 --> 0:17:22.400 little factory. Like we did everything that you could think 0:17:22.440 --> 0:17:25.680 about when it came to drug did it from the 0:17:26.080 --> 0:17:29.520 loading up or even the cultivating of the marijuana in 0:17:29.680 --> 0:17:33.160 Mexico all the way to the last drop of who 0:17:33.240 --> 0:17:37.560 was actually gonna receive marijuana back in the state. And 0:17:37.640 --> 0:17:41.240 it was translating, if it was you know, transporting, if 0:17:41.280 --> 0:17:43.760 it was counting the money, it was bagging up the 0:17:43.880 --> 0:17:49.159 marijuana into pounds, every single thing that had to do 0:17:49.280 --> 0:17:52.480 with Druggingly, he took us. He showed us he we 0:17:52.560 --> 0:18:01.720 were there with him. Remember them compressing the bills. If 0:18:01.760 --> 0:18:04.800 we have seen they had coke bottles when they were 0:18:04.880 --> 0:18:09.399 fitting up these spray bottles. I mean, what's the quotable 0:18:09.440 --> 0:18:13.239 quota for it? We spray that too, compressed the way 0:18:13.320 --> 0:18:29.640 to make a stick together like Colca coola. Okay, it's 0:18:30.240 --> 0:18:34.920 nice long drive through like thats a you know, coming 0:18:34.960 --> 0:18:36.639 back from where we're from, and it would be like 0:18:36.680 --> 0:18:40.159 a maybe ten hour drive to the border. You a 0:18:40.200 --> 0:18:44.400 crossing border at Laredo. Oh, it was a learning experience 0:18:44.440 --> 0:18:48.760 though every state. My dad was like he knew exactly 0:18:48.800 --> 0:18:51.040 what every state did, what they cultivated, what they were 0:18:51.080 --> 0:18:54.040 known for in the states and in Mexico. So it 0:18:54.119 --> 0:18:56.840 was a learning experience. Yeah, who tell us about the cattle, 0:18:57.119 --> 0:19:01.240 and we'll ask so many questions right the whole trip, 0:19:01.320 --> 0:19:09.640 I was always learning, Ernie. So getting to the board, 0:19:09.680 --> 0:19:11.840 I remember like I was getting sick on the way 0:19:12.000 --> 0:19:17.480 back home because that marijuana wet Mary want to smell, 0:19:17.600 --> 0:19:22.119 smells different than like smokes. It just had this ugly 0:19:22.280 --> 0:19:26.359 like smell to it. Then we get you know, car sick. 0:19:27.000 --> 0:19:31.240 You know that smell didn't help would draw up, you know, 0:19:31.320 --> 0:19:35.240 it was just it was kind of hard. I remember 0:19:35.320 --> 0:19:39.680 getting to the border. I remember feeling that anxiety and 0:19:39.840 --> 0:19:45.600 dance and not understanding but knowing that just hearing the conversation, 0:19:45.720 --> 0:19:49.080 that having that feeling where okay, we're next in line, 0:19:52.680 --> 0:19:54.760 and the customer agent coming to the car, you know, 0:19:54.840 --> 0:19:59.399 American citizens, where you guys head it. Remember pulling us 0:19:59.440 --> 0:20:02.040 out the car and separating my brother and I from 0:20:02.119 --> 0:20:08.520 my parents. But me and my brother knew exactly had 0:20:08.560 --> 0:20:11.280 it played off. What could you guys go to who 0:20:11.320 --> 0:20:13.919 are your parents? You know, just the question to make 0:20:13.960 --> 0:20:15.480 sure that we were A market says, to make sure 0:20:15.480 --> 0:20:19.200 that they were our parents. I guess we passed the test. Yeah, 0:20:19.640 --> 0:20:21.639 I remember that later and we're like, let's just pretend 0:20:21.680 --> 0:20:25.200 we're sleeping. And I think that because of most of 0:20:25.240 --> 0:20:28.680 the time, we're pretty kind to be like I told 0:20:28.680 --> 0:20:30.359 them that the kids are sleeping in the back. You 0:20:30.400 --> 0:20:47.800 now go ahead, go through. We didn't notice that. My 0:20:47.920 --> 0:20:50.639 dad he handled it pretty well, but I can't. It 0:20:50.760 --> 0:20:53.760 would get nervous as well. I remember this time when 0:20:53.960 --> 0:20:56.440 we have a car full of drugs and we pull 0:20:56.560 --> 0:21:11.320 up h m h and everyone American Saysians. My dad said, yes, sir, 0:21:13.320 --> 0:21:18.000 my dad Namerpans says, and my dad, you just told 0:21:18.080 --> 0:21:22.520 him the Americans says that I did, and we're like, okay, 0:21:22.640 --> 0:21:25.280 he's nervous. He was nervous. I see him here. Sometimes 0:21:25.320 --> 0:21:30.159 he'll buy the hot pepper peppers for some reason, and 0:21:30.240 --> 0:21:32.880 if he was nervous, he'll buy it. I started, He'll 0:21:32.880 --> 0:21:34.720 started eating it just like that. He started. You don't 0:21:34.720 --> 0:21:36.359 have to. I guess to get his mind up of 0:21:36.720 --> 0:21:39.639 I don't know. I guess it helped him to kind 0:21:39.680 --> 0:21:42.960 of calm the nerves. And I remember also thinking like, 0:21:43.119 --> 0:21:47.600 once we're across those high stakes places, when we're at 0:21:47.640 --> 0:21:52.119 our worst with anxiety, then he'll stop to rest, and 0:21:52.160 --> 0:21:54.080 I'll be like this, he has to stop to rest. 0:21:54.760 --> 0:22:01.920 Can we just get home. When we did make it across, 0:22:02.160 --> 0:22:07.520 you would say we need steak, we need great state dinner. 0:22:08.840 --> 0:22:12.439 I remember he orders these people's steaks like we could eat, 0:22:12.560 --> 0:22:15.359 and he just wanted to make sure, like this is 0:22:15.560 --> 0:22:19.000 what the reward is, like I guess, like a sign 0:22:19.080 --> 0:22:23.280 to go, you're gonna eat good. Why do you think 0:22:23.359 --> 0:22:27.000 he took you? I honestly, I think it helped him. 0:22:29.080 --> 0:22:31.040 I don't think he was thinking like, oh, my teaching 0:22:31.160 --> 0:22:34.240 kids a drug business. It was teaching us everything enough 0:22:34.840 --> 0:22:43.119 the highway system. Oh he give us here, you know, 0:22:43.320 --> 0:22:45.240 and usful to him to have us with him. Of course, 0:22:45.960 --> 0:22:48.920 no doubt. At those times, people were like, yeah, he 0:22:48.960 --> 0:22:51.080 wouldn't do that to his kids, and don't forget in 0:22:51.200 --> 0:22:55.560 those eighties, you know, Twinson realized comment that's today. So 0:22:55.680 --> 0:22:59.240 we were a big deal for a long time. It's 0:22:59.320 --> 0:23:02.760 so easy to remember saying things for us. We did 0:23:02.800 --> 0:23:07.960 just fifty times when I don't want one to three, 0:23:07.960 --> 0:23:10.880 we did. Actually my dad take three cars at a time, 0:23:11.520 --> 0:23:14.200 so we would go across the border because across the border, 0:23:14.359 --> 0:23:17.800 get off, across the border, walking, go pick up the 0:23:17.880 --> 0:23:20.920 next car, across the border again, because he didn't trust 0:23:20.920 --> 0:23:22.400 the driver, like I don't want to cross the board 0:23:22.440 --> 0:23:49.280 said some cars had double gas tanks. I got back up, 0:23:49.320 --> 0:23:51.880 you know, because they took up a lot of gas, 0:23:52.920 --> 0:23:56.240 and I keep those carder the easier wants to use 0:23:56.520 --> 0:23:58.480 for a drug dealer. But there was an easier once 0:23:58.560 --> 0:24:01.680 for police officers to be you have this car because 0:24:01.720 --> 0:24:05.960 it has two gas things, what's in use? And I 0:24:06.080 --> 0:24:08.600 think that my dad knew that he was to take 0:24:08.680 --> 0:24:12.480 that chance. But his more successful trip roup with smaller cars, 0:24:12.840 --> 0:24:17.399 compact cars that that's who were like trusts that he 0:24:17.480 --> 0:24:19.440 could fit. The first he used it was like a 0:24:19.560 --> 0:24:22.679 four temple, a four temple, a four or four temple, 0:24:22.720 --> 0:24:26.440 like a two tone like blah, It was like eighty 0:24:26.520 --> 0:24:29.560 and look for our first trip, eight hundred pounds and 0:24:29.840 --> 0:24:32.200 you might think, well, eight hundred pounds and you're bringing 0:24:32.200 --> 0:24:34.240 it from Mexico at that time, he probably spent a 0:24:34.280 --> 0:24:40.160 thousand dollars. Yeah, made sixties seventy tholland dollars. I love money. 0:24:40.320 --> 0:24:43.120 It's a lot of money from not all of them, 0:24:43.400 --> 0:24:48.280 but now that money. He loves that marijuana business. He 0:24:48.359 --> 0:24:52.520 was like, this business would mean you money. It grows on, 0:24:52.640 --> 0:24:55.080 trade might go down trades and he's like, you don't 0:24:55.160 --> 0:24:57.399 invest a lot, you don't lose a lot. You know. 0:24:59.600 --> 0:25:04.840 All that start on what was that year that too 0:25:05.480 --> 0:25:23.600 when our an was Radiobu chicaw put his department. The 0:25:23.720 --> 0:25:27.280 Chicago police found two hundred pounds of marijuana at the 0:25:27.320 --> 0:25:30.719 family home with the street value of over a million dollars. 0:25:31.359 --> 0:25:33.639 My older brother took could blame the first time. The 0:25:33.720 --> 0:25:36.000 second time they came, they're the ones that will take 0:25:36.040 --> 0:25:40.359 the blame fame. That's where my dad was on human 0:25:40.720 --> 0:25:45.840 un Eleven years old, j and Pete were pulled out 0:25:45.920 --> 0:25:48.800 of school by their now fugitive dad and along with 0:25:48.880 --> 0:25:50.880 them more and were forced to do one more trip 0:25:50.960 --> 0:25:55.560 to Mexico. This time it was so Margarito Flores Sr. 0:25:55.640 --> 0:25:58.280 Could live as a freeman. They wouldn't be returning to 0:25:58.359 --> 0:26:02.600 America for only enough Mexico is also where he started 0:26:02.680 --> 0:26:04.960 his cash that he built from thirty years and the 0:26:05.040 --> 0:26:08.879 drug trade. We got to see my dad, you know, 0:26:10.040 --> 0:26:14.320 and he was like having to gambling, you know. He 0:26:14.480 --> 0:26:18.399 liked horse races and um. He liked to back up 0:26:18.480 --> 0:26:22.000 his big mouth. You know, He'll say something and he'll 0:26:22.040 --> 0:26:24.160 go through with it, like I'll bet you my car. 0:26:25.840 --> 0:26:28.840 He introduced us to everyone and we knew exactly how 0:26:28.880 --> 0:26:31.119 to speak to you. Nice to meet you. He's are 0:26:31.200 --> 0:26:34.639 my sons, and we were here so many stories about 0:26:34.640 --> 0:26:38.480 how rich my dad was back in the sixties. He's 0:26:38.520 --> 0:26:40.320 the only one that had a car. He's not even 0:26:40.359 --> 0:26:42.840 the governor to use his car or driving the governor. 0:26:44.680 --> 0:26:47.840 And he owned more land in the state than anyone else. 0:26:49.200 --> 0:26:50.879 I remember it was funny that I was a kid 0:26:50.960 --> 0:26:55.960 and there's a big daddy on some marcles. It's called 0:26:55.960 --> 0:26:59.119 the fat of some marcles and oscans. It's like the 0:26:59.240 --> 0:27:04.200 biggest festivals, you know in Mexico, and gambing is huge there. 0:27:05.000 --> 0:27:19.160 You have cock fights and gambles, tune dollars fight. Think 0:27:19.200 --> 0:27:22.600 about that. Oh yeah, there's even at our age you 0:27:22.640 --> 0:27:25.560 can go to a horse race and gamble a hundred 0:27:25.600 --> 0:27:31.320 thousand with dollars you know, it's just weird, like would 0:27:31.359 --> 0:27:33.800 tell me like that was like the big thing to do, 0:27:34.040 --> 0:27:40.000 like gamble money, hundred dollars, game of poker, like one hand, 0:27:41.600 --> 0:27:46.280 nothing to walk away from it. There was a kind 0:27:46.320 --> 0:27:49.880 of introduction of Mexico right he's introductions. People were meeting people. 0:27:49.920 --> 0:27:52.760 We understand the culture, we understand the respect and how 0:27:52.800 --> 0:27:56.000 to treat people, how to talk to people and all 0:27:56.040 --> 0:27:58.760 that stuff. And even though we looked in their views 0:27:58.880 --> 0:28:03.399 like America in kids, those people started looking at a 0:28:03.480 --> 0:28:11.240 little bit different when they went in school in Mexico. 0:28:11.560 --> 0:28:13.639 The dad sent the twins to spend their evenings and 0:28:13.760 --> 0:28:17.159 weekends doing hard labor on a chicken farm. They were 0:28:17.200 --> 0:28:21.160 the youngest workers there, though not by much. The rest 0:28:21.240 --> 0:28:24.400 of the workforce were also at varying stages of puberty. 0:28:25.320 --> 0:28:29.160 Heavy machinery and trucks were being operated by twelve year olds. 0:28:30.240 --> 0:28:33.080 It was almost the hardest thing I had ever done 0:28:33.119 --> 0:28:34.800 as a kid. And I would see other kids like 0:28:34.880 --> 0:28:40.000