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Feds Take Down Drug Cartel With Chicago Operation

Federal prosecutors on Thursday unveiled new indictments charging that accused Mexican drug cartel members pumped vast quantities of drugs into major U.S. cities through a Chicago-based operation.

As CBS 2's Derrick Blakley reports, this was no ordinary drug bust. For years, everyone from regular Joes to Mayor Richard M. Daley have asked: why don't the feds concentrate harder on nailing the drug kingpins?

Thursday's indictments showed progress in doing just that. Ironically, some of the kingpins were operating practically on the mayor's doorstep.

Just one day before, Daley was in Washington, D.C., discussing drug cartels with the head of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

"We talked about how international terrorists are having an effect on life in our neighborhoods," Daley said. On Thursday, he learned the problem has landed hard in his own neighborhood.

A total of 36 defendants in the United States and Mexico were charged, including 10 drug cartel leaders. Three of them were once allied, but now run rival cartels, federal prosecutors said. Also among those charged was a pair of twin brothers – Pedro and Margarito Flores – accused of running a Chicago-based distribution cell supplied by the cartel leaders.

The new court documents depict a sprawling distribution network stretching back nearly two decades, based on investigations by the Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration officials and the IRS.

Authorities contend three suspects oversaw the shipment of nearly 200 metric tons of cocaine and large amounts of heroin into the United States.

Patrick Aubin, a South Loop resident said the dealers were storing their drugs at a townhouse at 1332 S. Prairie. The home was identified in a federal indictment as a drug storehouse for a Mexican drug cartel. That storehouse is less than two blocks away from Daley's home.

"Who would think that right under the mayor's nose something like this would be going on?" Aubin said.

South Loop resident Burce Downs said "Just commenting to my wife, I've never seen anyone here. There's a car in garage. Never seen the car move." He said it's possible the car didn't move but drugs did.

The cartel leaders allegedly supplied cocaine and heroin to wholesale distributors, including Pedro and Margarito Flores. Their Chicago distribution cell supplied cocaine and heroin dealers in Cincinnati; Columbus, Ohio; Detroit; Milwaukee; New York; Philadelphia; Washington, D.C.; Vancouver, British Columbia; and other cities.

The indictments were announced Thursday by U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder and Northern District of Illinois U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald.

Fitzgerald called it the most significant drug conspiracy ever charged in Chicago. "Approximately 1,500 to 2,000 kilos of coke per month and significant quantities of heroin were going to an organization in Chicago led by the Flores brothers, who were the pipeline."

In fact, the feds said the Flores twins used at least eight local drug storehouses, including the one in the 1900 block of South Prairie, another in Romeoville and another in Plainfield -- all in middle- and upper-class neighborhoods.

South Loop resident Sandra Galvo said, "You don't expect people that live in this neighborhood to associate with anything like that. So it's a good cover-up in my opinion."

Also indicted were Joaquin "El-Chapo" Guzman-Loera, reputed head of Mexico's Sina-Loera drug cartel, with the feds seeking to financially crush the cartel.

U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder said, "If we can suffocate their funding sources, we can cripple their organizations."

Nationwide, the indictments sought to reclaim almost $6 billion in drug proceeds from 43 defendants. That includes more than $1.8 billion in the Chicago area, plus two vehicles, a semi-tractor trailer truck, and residences in Romeoville and Palos Hills

Indictments were unsealed both in Chicago and in Brooklyn, N.Y. Many of the suspects charged were already being hunted by U.S. and Mexican authorities.

The indictments grew out of a street gang investigation in Chicago and drug-related killings in New York.