Speaker 1: Hey, it's fifty cent and I'm Charlie Webster. I know
Speaker 1: so many of you loved the first season of Surviving
Speaker 1: l Chapo, the twins who brought down a drug lord,
Speaker 1: and have been patiently waiting for season two.
Speaker 2: Don't worry, we got you. Season two starts next week.
Speaker 2: We got the Real Deal. This is the story of
Speaker 2: identical twins Jay and Peter Flores speaking to us publicly
Speaker 2: for the first time, and their wives Foul and Bed.
Speaker 2: The Floreest twins became the biggest drug draft beckers in
Speaker 2: North America at twenty three, but they wanted to break
Speaker 2: the cycle and give their children a better life, a
Speaker 2: chance they never had went away from crime. The only
Speaker 2: way out was to turn themselves into the US government
Speaker 2: and cooperate against the biggest drug lord of all time,
Speaker 2: a man who they saw is family the real Deal,
Speaker 2: Joaquin Guzman laretam El Chapo.
Speaker 1: The consequences of their decision start to unravel more than
Speaker 1: they ever could have imagined. Since we've been making this
Speaker 1: production for the last two years, this has played out
Speaker 1: in real time, as you'll soon start to find out
Speaker 1: in season two. Back in season one, right in the
Speaker 1: middle of recording in the safe house, the wives lawyers
Speaker 1: called with some devastating news. It was the call that
Speaker 1: changed everything once again for the Flores's family. Now Valenvieve
Speaker 1: find themselves heading to prison, fifteen years after their husbands
Speaker 1: first turned themselves in. In season two, we will bring
Speaker 1: you up to date with the story of the Flora's
Speaker 1: family from the moment they were brought in by US authorities,
Speaker 1: went face to face with El Chapo in the courtroom,
Speaker 1: all the way up to present day. Stay tuned to
Speaker 1: discover if the Flores's family still feels the Twins did
Speaker 1: the right thing, weather they feel it was all worth it.
Speaker 1: Season two begins exactly where we left off, So here's
Speaker 1: a short recap of everything that happened on the last
Speaker 1: season of Surviving l Chapo. The Twin two brought down
Speaker 1: a drug lord.
Speaker 3: Our introduction to the drug business started at a seven
Speaker 3: years old when dad came home from prison.
Speaker 4: How long was he in prison? Some news? It was
Speaker 4: an earning experience.
Speaker 3: I don't even think we thought marijuana was like a
Speaker 3: bad thing, right. It was like as soon as he
Speaker 3: got home and he was like.
Speaker 4: A back ay.
Speaker 3: Our own was raided by the Chicago Police Department my
Speaker 3: older brother took a blame the first time. The second
Speaker 3: time they came, they're the ones there to take the
Speaker 3: blame for him. When my dad wasn't the run, my
Speaker 3: other brother he would sell cocaine out the house.
Speaker 4: We started meeting our kinds of people.
Speaker 3: You know, in his business he sold like a lot
Speaker 3: two kilos an apartment and he was arrested by that
Speaker 3: DEA and that loft us in our situation that we
Speaker 3: depended on him, you know, he was our provider. Not
Speaker 3: too long after that when we first got approached by
Speaker 3: his connect as drug supplier with the opportunity to to
Speaker 3: get into business. I'm sixteen years old, some two years old,
Speaker 3: and you know there's ten thousand dollars worth of bills
Speaker 3: on the table. I mean, working in Walmart wasn't going
Speaker 3: to cover that.
Speaker 4: Three months into.
Speaker 3: Our drug checking career, we're making a million dollars.
Speaker 1: At seventeen, Jay and Pete had made a million dollars
Speaker 1: in cash. By twenty three, the twins were the biggest
Speaker 1: drug traffick is in North America.
Speaker 3: My brother that we probably easily pushed over one hundred
Speaker 3: and thirty one hundred and forty tons since nineteen ninety eight.
Speaker 4: February ninety two, thousand and four, and here my phone
Speaker 4: started ringing, ringing, the ring.
Speaker 3: I remember answering my phone and there's my sibs and
Speaker 3: she's like, pee.
Speaker 4: They're in the houses.
Speaker 3: They're in everyone's house, defensident.
Speaker 4: They're looking for you, they're looking for don't go on.
Speaker 3: Is there everywhere?
Speaker 4: And I remember that panic hit. There's a word out
Speaker 4: for our rest. There's an a pendent in Dinatman out
Speaker 4: of Milwaukee. There's search wards. That's not good.
Speaker 3: Remember crossing the bording and just fiting some relea to
Speaker 3: have crossed that border.
Speaker 4: Get to Mexico. It's about Jay, my older brother and
Speaker 4: his wife. They can take me up.
Speaker 3: We're like, it's just so happy to see tell them like, okay,
Speaker 3: we made it out. You know.
Speaker 4: It's of mets.
Speaker 3: And little by little I was going to kind of
Speaker 3: fade out and stop doing that, like stopped selling drugs,
Speaker 3: and did the opposite.
Speaker 4: It happen. Yeah.
Speaker 1: The brothers fled to Mexico as fugitives with their wives
Speaker 1: Ball and Viv, and despite not being on the ground,
Speaker 1: their drug business just continued to boom. Pete's wife, Viv
Speaker 1: explains that things got more and more chaotic.
Speaker 5: It was just so much going on, so many different
Speaker 5: people coming in and out of the house, different cars,
Speaker 5: Jane with his one hundred phones, few with his I mean,
Speaker 5: it was just overwhelming.
Speaker 1: And then Pete was kidnapped in Mexico.
Speaker 4: My older brother club. He said, Bro, they just called.
Speaker 4: They said that they have Peter Kinner and they were
Speaker 4: them up.
Speaker 3: They walked me to a small room like a sun
Speaker 3: and there's no windows in there.
Speaker 4: They have a bed in there. I was just happy,
Speaker 4: still alive. So I get another con from somewhere else.
Speaker 4: He said, we're calling. We have your brother.
Speaker 3: You guys a chapel temperate eat.
Speaker 4: My best friend Tommy, I call him right away.
Speaker 3: When I told Tommy that chapel has Peter, He's like,
Speaker 3: let's go to Coli.
Speaker 4: We're gonna get your brother back. We arrived to this.
Speaker 3: Like farm, but there's planes, a bunch of small assessments.
Speaker 4: We start walking.
Speaker 3: There's the pilot's this holl skinny kid wearing flipflops. He
Speaker 3: has to be sixteen years old. And he like opens
Speaker 3: the door and I'm like, this is not right. And
Speaker 3: I sat there like, oh my god. And as we're
Speaker 3: kind of.
Speaker 4: On the plane.
Speaker 3: We're going to big peaks like the plane, I feel
Speaker 3: like something there's the tree are going to just like
Speaker 3: rub the belly of the plane.
Speaker 4: And it was this big mountain.
Speaker 3: Were king of heading towards end. And now I'm really
Speaker 3: really scared. I'm like, what the he lands, I'm kind
Speaker 3: of getting off. Everyone's just looking at me. We come
Speaker 3: up the stairs and realize it's a big old it's huge.
Speaker 3: There's tables. I see that there's like these picnic tables.
Speaker 3: There's a bunch of newspapers and if someone have to
Speaker 3: pull the face in the front of it. And I
Speaker 3: looked and I could see his hat and coming up
Speaker 3: so slowly. Then I see him.
Speaker 4: He looks at me and he.
Speaker 3: Couldn't gives a second take, reaches out his side and
Speaker 3: he like, kingman, I tell my name, are the real
Speaker 3: Florestan the florest.
Speaker 4: He's kind of stairs.
Speaker 3: I mean, I'm kind of trying to give me back
Speaker 3: my hand a little bit, and and so how could
Speaker 3: I help you?
Speaker 4: And said, well, look, I'm here because they killed my brother.
Speaker 3: I don't owe that money, and I'm here to see
Speaker 3: if I could work something that's for my brother. Well,
Speaker 3: he said, I'm sorry to say, but that money's old
Speaker 3: to me and I'm not going to forgive that then.
Speaker 3: And he said, there's no money that's worth losing your brother.
Speaker 3: I just lost my and I would pay whatever it
Speaker 3: is to just get my brother back. And then when
Speaker 3: you come back, we could do business. You could come
Speaker 3: work for me. I could give you drugs. We could
Speaker 3: keep making money together. So I started collecting money, started
Speaker 3: making payments. The next day, I get a call early
Speaker 3: no morning. So he says, hey, listen, your brother's not well.
Speaker 3: And he said, and everything that.
Speaker 6: You know I had known of you, it seems like
Speaker 6: you're you're a man of your word, and that that
Speaker 6: says a lot. I don't give me your word that
Speaker 6: you're going to pay me back my money and.
Speaker 4: I'll let your gotta like I'm let me get up
Speaker 4: the truck and kiss. I was like, that was gonna die.
Speaker 4: And he was like, what happened? And I was like,
Speaker 4: I'm at chapel.
Speaker 1: The meeting with l Chapo to free Peete is ultimately
Speaker 1: what led to the twins becoming part of the Cineloa
Speaker 1: cartel family. This is what changed everything. As Jay's wife
Speaker 1: Val describes.
Speaker 7: Their life, changed drastically over night, and there was just
Speaker 7: so many new people around.
Speaker 3: Us, and who's going to protect us better than the
Speaker 3: biggest drug lords in the world. They welcomed us in
Speaker 3: with open arms, and the mecca of drug lords in
Speaker 3: present time, the drug lords that we know about it
Speaker 3: Chapel Mile. At that time, we were important to them.
Speaker 3: We had access to more drugs than anyone else because
Speaker 3: of who we were as in our personalities, how we
Speaker 3: carried ourselves.
Speaker 4: I think there was a turning point.
Speaker 3: We're at the table with the biggest drug lords and
Speaker 3: they love us, and.
Speaker 4: With that comes power and protect power.
Speaker 3: And protection and celebrations and a life that no one
Speaker 3: could have dreamed of.
Speaker 1: But the life at the top of the drug game
Speaker 1: isn't always cracked up to be.
Speaker 3: We were at the top right things are getting taken
Speaker 3: for me, not just that I was going through hardships,
Speaker 3: that was maturing. I was under starting to understand like
Speaker 3: the destruction and everything that was doing to me, to
Speaker 3: a family, and trying to understand that what we were
Speaker 3: doing wasn't the right thing to do. And we could
Speaker 3: sit there all the time and say, oh, yeah, well
Speaker 3: I don't hurt anyone. I don't kill anyone that didn't matter.
Speaker 3: I was watching thing this documentary came out about John
Speaker 3: Gotti in the mo film. It just said that, you know,
Speaker 3: Sammy the boy had received five years for nineteen murders
Speaker 3: first corporation against John Gotty, and I remember thinking to myself, Wow,
Speaker 3: you got five years recovering against John Gotty. In my head,
Speaker 3: I was like, who the fuck is John Gotti? The
Speaker 3: people we were dealing with. I felt like it was
Speaker 3: living John Gotti's whole life. Each day I woke up
Speaker 3: in the middle of the night and I do call
Speaker 3: it in epiphany.
Speaker 4: It was this moment of just charity. I could cooperate.
Speaker 3: I think we would have to do some prison time,
Speaker 3: but we'll have a chance to change your life. Sitting
Speaker 3: at home and thinking about it and thinking about really
Speaker 3: just wanting a way out, just one way, wanting a
Speaker 3: way to just be there for my family, kill him
Speaker 3: a different way of life.
Speaker 4: I wanted the life.
Speaker 1: The only way out was to cooperate against the man
Speaker 1: they now saw his family Joaquin Guzman Luera El Chapo.
Speaker 1: But first Jay had to convince his brother.
Speaker 4: Peter, who shows up him in vir shop.
Speaker 3: Hey, I said, come in the wash come in the bathroom,
Speaker 3: and at that time, we have a really huge shower.
Speaker 3: I was like a twelve people showers and we have
Speaker 3: all these jets and it's like, I don't know, sixteen
Speaker 3: shower heads. But when the shower heads were going, you
Speaker 3: couldn't hear anything. I turned on the shower. I said, listen,
Speaker 3: if we know, we could give them anyone they want,
Speaker 3: and if you know, saving a bullcot five years for
Speaker 3: nineteen murder thro a corporate turn got whooping a good situation.
Speaker 3: So I'm just thinking that worst case that we could
Speaker 3: get ten years. I don't think none of us want
Speaker 3: the life that's coming for us, and I think that
Speaker 3: this will be our chance for us to change our
Speaker 3: life into something different. But we're gonna have to sacrifice.
Speaker 3: I said, when we need to talk to our turney
Speaker 3: and how we're going to do that. And I was like,
Speaker 3: me and my brother Post looked.
Speaker 4: About the attorney.
Speaker 7: When I flew into Chicago, I went to his office
Speaker 7: to go see him, and I just sat down in
Speaker 7: his office and I'm like, listen, this is really important.
Speaker 7: You can't say anything to anyone, I said, Jay and Peter,
Speaker 7: they're thinking about cooperating with the US government, and we're
Speaker 7: gonna need your help.
Speaker 3: The first told me that he actually was able to
Speaker 3: reach out to an agent and he said, I'm gonna
Speaker 3: put you on the phone. His thing was Sam Chanelli,
Speaker 3: and that's gonna be the first age we ever talked to.
Speaker 3: He said, And I'm gonna talk to us a train's office.
Speaker 3: I gotta talk to people higher ups and see how
Speaker 3: we could do this. You guys are doing the right thing.
Speaker 3: You're coming on to the good site. Right before we
Speaker 3: hung up, he said, welcome to Tim, and say welcome
Speaker 3: to Tam and say.
Speaker 4: That hurt.
Speaker 3: I was like Team USA, and I kind of made
Speaker 3: me think like what team might have And I felt
Speaker 3: like that was the biggest moment where I felt like
Speaker 3: a trader, like right, they're just talking to them. And
Speaker 3: I said, look, man, I'm looking to make a deal,
Speaker 3: but I'm looking to make the that's still you ever made.
Speaker 3: He said, I got three people for you, and I
Speaker 3: told him again, I got chap of mine.
Speaker 4: I thought the tub he tells.
Speaker 3: Me, the only thing I can tell you is that,
Speaker 3: but it would be the most valuable thing you could
Speaker 3: do is start if you can documenting some of these conversations.
Speaker 3: So I went to radio shop and bought a bunch
Speaker 3: of recording device.
Speaker 4: I'm meeting the facts.
Speaker 3: We kind of get into the conversations. I remember the
Speaker 3: first thing that I talked to him about was like, look,
Speaker 3: I have I have a lot of information for you guys,
Speaker 3: but I need to be reassured.
Speaker 4: I need to know that I want.
Speaker 3: I wanna promise that that no harmon's gonna be come
Speaker 3: to my family, that you're gonna promise it keep them safe,
Speaker 3: and that then nobody in my family will be prosecuted
Speaker 3: for any of the crimes related to my drug trafficking.
Speaker 3: And it was like, do you think we would give
Speaker 3: a fuck about your family? What we need is a
Speaker 3: solid case and Chop it was my and we could
Speaker 3: get him with a recording that leads back to a
Speaker 3: drug seizure. And she got don't I promise you the
Speaker 3: best deal? You can imagine? Like, you get the best
Speaker 3: you know the government has ever given up?
Speaker 4: And I was like, that's it.
Speaker 3: I was so nervous now, of course, to me the recording,
Speaker 3: but what was to come?
Speaker 4: What did this mean for my life?
Speaker 3: Like it was an ugly feeling, you know, getting the
Speaker 3: recorder and the only thing offense had killed me like
Speaker 3: a ear piece with a microphone on. You know, when
Speaker 3: you put the phone into your ear, you can hear
Speaker 3: it and then they can record.
Speaker 4: I remember putting into my.
Speaker 3: Ear and like the secretary answered, I'm like, oh, it's
Speaker 3: the twin and I'm like, I don't even know what
Speaker 3: to say. I remember I'm saying Amigo, like carrying his
Speaker 3: voice again, kid casthology and did by to get over that.
Speaker 3: That was like a big moment, and I remember thinking
Speaker 3: that this is my ticket home. On two weeks after
Speaker 3: the trup of recording and we get a car to Sunday.
Speaker 3: Our attorney wants to talk to us. It's early, right,
Speaker 3: and he said you although us attorney.
Speaker 4: Wants to talk to you. He said, he wants you
Speaker 4: guys to turn yourselves in today. Really just hit us,
Speaker 4: huh what?
Speaker 3: I then it wanted to say goodbye to It was
Speaker 3: scary to think that, and I didn't like losing my family.
Speaker 3: And every day we tumped in the truck two agents.
Speaker 3: Did you guys mean the recorders?
Speaker 8: Yes?
Speaker 3: And we were emotion it's okay, guys, you they're doing
Speaker 3: the right thing. And they started driving towards the airport.
Speaker 3: Didn't he come for a flat.
Speaker 1: The twins were put on a private plane and escorted
Speaker 1: out of the country by the FEDS. The rest of
Speaker 1: the family were left to fend for themselves. Vall had
Speaker 1: to step up to get the family out of Mexico alive.
Speaker 8: When jamp left, he knew that there was just no
Speaker 8: plan for us. It looked like this whole lake entourage,
Speaker 8: and we had to drive two hours get to the border.
Speaker 8: You got to pass through all these towels. You look
Speaker 8: so fucking crazy, and it's the night, and we drove
Speaker 8: through the whole night when it stopped, and we drive
Speaker 8: up to the border and we get there and they
Speaker 8: asked us for our papers, and I'm giving them my passport,
Speaker 8: I'm giving them kids papers. I was like, the first
Speaker 8: one ticket there and they're like, hold on, hold on,
Speaker 8: everyone gotta wait.
Speaker 4: I was like, no, we can't wait. We gotta go in.
Speaker 8: And I'm like they're gonna kill us. They're gonna fucking
Speaker 8: kill us.
Speaker 9: I said, we have to get out of the country.
Speaker 4: We have to get.
Speaker 9: Back to the US or US citizens. And at that
Speaker 9: point I knew, I just knew this was our life.
Speaker 9: It didn't matter whatever. Champeded and co operated. I knew
Speaker 9: at that point that they were gonna always look at
Speaker 9: us like criminals.
Speaker 8: I knew it, and I just I felt like he
Speaker 8: needs such a huge mistake.
Speaker 3: They're right, took the last step and I just like
Speaker 3: stretching out my legs a little bit and my brother
Speaker 3: gets it's behind me and he's like okay, and they're like,
Speaker 3: all right, Turnron, it's excuse me, he said, Turnron put
Speaker 3: trying to wreck and it hit.
Speaker 10: Me and get put the heckus. That was where like
Speaker 10: my brother and I looked at us like this is
Speaker 10: this is our life? Ban no and cussed the shackles.
Speaker 10: Just keep telling ourselves that we're doing the right thing.
Speaker 10: We end up flying into small airport right out north
Speaker 10: of Chicago. I remember when the plane landed, we looking
Speaker 10: out the window and I just saw nothing but police
Speaker 10: slights and.
Speaker 4: Lots of.
Speaker 3: The taxi and when the door opens, it's cold. I
Speaker 3: remember stepping a foot outside of the airplane and standing there, I.
Speaker 4: Just see the sea of like blue jackets like the e.
Speaker 3: A US Marshalls, And when I saw the cards and
Speaker 3: like all the agents in marshals, just like staring at us.
Speaker 4: I think cause the first time I ever felt like
Speaker 4: Holy shit.
Speaker 2: Deep Vanierra. Season two starts once did a fourth.
Speaker 1: Or backtop, surviving El Chapo, The Twins Who Brought Down
Speaker 1: a Drug Lord. Season two is hosted by Curtis fifty
Speaker 1: cent Jackson and me Charlie Webster. Produced by myself and
Speaker 1: Jackson McLennan, Assistant producer and research support by Casey Hurtz,
Speaker 1: Edit and sound design by Nico Polella. Theme music and
Speaker 1: original score by Ryan Sorenson. It's executive produced by Curtis
Speaker 1: fifty cent Jackson and Me Charlie Webster. Curtis fifty cent
Speaker 1: Jackson presents a Lionsgate Sound and G Unit audio production
Speaker 1: exclusively for iHeart Podcasts.