Valerie Gaytan once lived in luxury on a mountaintop estate in Mexico with her husband Margarito Flores Jr., the Chicago-raised cocaine-trafficker who with his twin brother Pedro Flores were once the city’s cocaine kings.
In 2008, the Flores twins, ensnared by U.S. authorities, agreed to cooperate with them to help bring down Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán Loera.
But the “cartel wives” — as Gaytan and her sister-in-law Vivianna Lopez, both daughters of Chicago cops, called themselves in a 2017 book — continued to live in style in the United States thanks to hidden cash from their husbands’ drug business.
Now, Gaytan and Lopez both face three and a half years in prison for money-laundering.
Gaytan, sentenced Monday, says in the latest episode of her husband’s podcast “Surviving El Chapo,” “I just want to bring awareness to other women that have walked in my shoes and that are going through this. And sometimes you’re living that life, and it’s like a really fast lifestyle, right? And you don’t realize the consequences.
“I did make a huge mistake. And I just feel bad that, you know, my kids are going to suffer because of it.”
Gaytan, 48, says on the podcast that her biggest fear is being alone, away from her family, in prison.
She says the location of the place where she’ll serve her sentence is secret. That’s because the Flores twins and their wives could still be targets of Sinaloa cartel hitmen wanting revenge against the brothers for helping send El Chapo to prison for the rest of his life.
“There was things that needed to be taken out of my [court records] — that have to be redacted,” she says. “Of course, where I would be serving my time was definitely one of those issues. I must say that it is scary.”
Gaytan, who pleaded guilty to money-laundering, acknowledges that she committed the crime but says prosecutors aimed to “make an example out of me.
“It’s only going to make us stronger,” she says of herself and her husband. “And I know one day we can definitely put it behind us and finally just start over.”
