Pedro watched with despair as the Shining Path Army ravaged farming communities and killed members of his family. The boy handed up a wrench to his father, watching and learning. This year the organization is considering adding 100 new members and they are experimenting with saffron production and the use of guano fertilizer. MESA, Inc.P.O. With a natural inclination to downplay the real-world impacts of their line of business and a personal belief system that values loyalty and integrity above all, the fact the brothers turned their back on their community becomes all the more intriguing. Three decades later, Flores' twin sons made international news for secretly recording notorious Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman after the brothers' indictment for running what turned out to be their own billion-dollar drug enterprise. 
For many psychologists and philosophers morality is viewed as a learnt system, with children born as blank slates free from pre-ordained moral judgements. Growing up in the Chicago neighbourhood of Little Village with their father, a high ranking wholesale cocaine dealer, the identical twin brothers were normalised to the world of drug crime from a young age. Their father was among the family members granted protection despite his criminal record here. Flores immigrated to the Chicago area in 1969. So once again the Flores brothers will need to deliberate the essence of their character. Even when presented with the kidnapper on a platter, the brothers turned the other cheek, choosing to focus on growing their business rather than engaging in gang-warfare. In this way, morality may be a universal trait of humanity, but self-preservation is the driving force behind the behaviour itself. When I can, I love to walk back and forth and talk to my customers. For the Flores brothers, preservation prevailed over the community values they demonstrated back in 2008. Flores had started crossing the border into the United States in the late 1950s and was stopped nearly 20 times over the next decade, including once in 1966 when he was charged with smuggling people across the border into the U.S., according to federal documents included in his Cook County court file.
For 3 and 1/2 years, Flores has elevated the cuisine at both Sarasota restaurants to a new level of globally inspired freshness. When Pedro was kidnapped in 2003, Margarito paid the full $2 million USD ransom immediately, absorbing the cost rather than seeking to strike back. Uniquely able to connect previously disparate Hispanic and black gangs, the brothers rose quickly through the street gangs, eventually becoming two of the USAs biggest wholesalers of cocaine and heroin. Once there they continued to expand their reach, and by 2005 they were meeting personally with El Chapo, who at the time had recently escaped from prison and was one of the most wanted men in the world. I never thought I was going to be a chef but it just happened that way. El Chapo himself was charged as well. "For young kids, (the cartel) trusted them that much," said Gary Renick, Acosta's former partner, who also is retired. For the rest of your life, every time you start a car, you will be wondering, will this car start or will it explode?. The stunning undercover federal operation has been called the most significant drug investigation in Chicago history. They did pretty well.". "Flores asked me to please not handcuff him in front of his family," recalled Hipolito Acosta, a now-retired immigration agent who helped lead the investigation. Civil war erupted in the region in the 1980s. A courtroom sketch shows twin brothers, from left, Pedro and Margarito Flores, 33, of Chicago, appear before U.S. District Chief Judge Ruben Castillo in federal court in Chicago on Jan. 27, 2015. were sentenced in January to just 14 years. Start each day with Chicago Tribune editors' top story picks, delivered to your inbox. The Herreras' strength was in their unique membership of mostly blood relatives or close associates who fanned out into U.S. cities. By the time they were in high school, Pedro and Margarito Jr. had launched their own drug enterprise, in part by picking up some of Armando's customers after he went to prison for a federal drug conviction, records show. Behaving within the norms of our community, cohesion is increased, helping to promote the survival of society in general. He had a vision of a very bright future and they had no reason to doubt him. After working undercover for a month in Mexico, the twins finally told their immediate family that they were cooperating with U.S. law enforcement and that authorities would be moving all of them back to the U.S. for safety reasons. In early 2009, prosecutors say, the elder Flores returned to Mexico despite warnings from his family and federal agents. At the time he was bringing an estimated 35 kilos a month into Chicago, Cook County court records indicate.
Their father also took advantage of his boys' small hands, a perfect size for tripping hidden trapdoors where drugs had been secreted, according to sources close to the family. Flores' wife was indeed expecting, and in June she gave birth to twin boys they named Margarito Jr. and Pedro. Within days, he was kidnapped and presumably murdered. The elder Flores' story does mirror his sons' in one regard: He was likely moving drugs for the most powerful albeit only cartel operating at the time, the storied Herrera family, according to investigating agents and a Tribune article detailing his 1981 arrest.
Box 40113Berkeley, CA 94704, MESA is a 501(c)(3) NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION, El Huerto- based in La Universidad Nacional Agraria La Molina, Thanksgiving Farm at the Center for Discovery. Yet when faced with a threat to family survival, it seems that in this case, the instinct for self-preservation won out. Pedro also succeeded in convincing the army to put a base in his village to protect his community against the constant threat of the Shining Path. El Chapo handcuffed by navy marines in Mexico City, AP 2015. Many evolutionary scientists, including Darwin himself, believe the human conception of morality and ethics to be merely an adaptation to help us survive. A:Right now, it's a lot of peaches, watermelon and fresh herbs. 
Alone and broke in the polluted and over-crowded city, Pedro was starting to lose hope. As a front-pageTribune story in March revealedthe close-knit brothers were smart, kept their heads down and backed each other up. One year later, he was honorably discharged. Without financial resources and hungry for retribution, Pedro chose to forgo the dream of attending university and instead joined the Peruvian Army. In fact he credits it as the period when he was forced to ponder the relevance of war and whether or not there is ever a justification to kill another human being.
An informant tipped off federal agents that Flores had been smuggling people into Chicago and was now planning to bring a shipment of heroin into the city, according to Acosta and investigation reports he provided. Seven years later he managed to secure permanent residency despite the smuggling conviction, according to the court file. Working with U.S. authorities paid off for the twins. I'll do anything for my customers. He dropped out of school after just third grade, leaving to work the fields. In life or death situations our instinct for self-preservation kicks in, overriding collective representations of morality or ethics. In March Pedro left Thanksgiving Farm to return to his village in Peru. Records show that by 2008 they had acquired numerous homes in Mexico, from rural retreats to a seaside villa. Of Arms, learned how to cook, attended and began teaching food science and nutrition classes, and began competitive long distance running. Growing up in a neighbourhood dominated by illicit trade would largely normalise a life of crime, weakening instinctive judgements between right and wrong.
Still unable to walk, he spent the last of his money to make the 24-hour bus ride back to his roots where he discovered the healing power of the farm. In 2004, in the wake of a federal investigation into their drug trafficking in Milwaukee, the twins moved their operation to Mexico. Pedro Flores told people close to him that when he and his brother revealed they had flipped against the cartel and that federal agents wanted to quickly evacuate the family from Mexico, their father became livid, calling them cowards and saying he was ashamed of them. By 1980 he was living in a tidy single-family home in the 2600 block of South Homan Avenue and had been working for 10 years at Brach's on the West Side, earning at least $14,000 a year, the records show. But he remains in custody in Mexico after his spectacular capture in February 2014, and it's unclear if he will ever be brought to the U.S. to face prosecution. He became nostalgic for the farm.
The need to prevail at all costs, to pass our genes down generations; it is a universal trait shared by almost every living being. That the Flores twins would inherit their father's trade was hardly surprising given what they were exposed to at a young age. Thanks in part to their fathers contacts in Mexico, the Sinaloa cartel, and the notorious Joaquin El Chapo Guzman, soon became their main supplier. With the lucrative skill of bread baking as his new weapon, Pedro built a cart from which he sold his bread on the streets of Lima. An undated photo from a wanted poster of the Flores Brothers. At Thanksgiving Farm Pedro has been both teacher and student and has taken full advantage of every opportunity from artisan bread baking to intensive, rotational cattle grazing, to value-added marketing. (U.S. Q:What foods or food rituals did you enjoy growing up, and how did they influence your career? There was nothing that could have prepared him for the horrors he would witness. As the money poured in, the twins and their family their father included reaped the benefits. A:People love the short ribs and that's one people have loved since we first opened The Table. On this journey, MESA is grateful for the opportunity to meet international agricultural stewards like Pedro, and facilitate an experience that will provide them with additional tools and knowledge to realize their dreams. The only difference for the Flores boys was that they helped their dad remove gas tanks filled with hundreds of pounds of marijuana. Pedro and Margarito Flores led an unusual childhood.
Since returning to his community, Pedro has pursued developing a producers cooperative. Chicago was a main distribution hub, but by the late 1980s federal authorities had chipped away at the organization, bringing several major charges here. Take 2006-2007 MESA steward Pedro Flores from Chuquibamba, Peru. El Huertos staff immediately recognized that Pedro would be a perfect MESA steward. 2022 www.heraldtribune.com. Initially they followed in their fathers footsteps, running drugs with the Latin Kings gang. "I've considered the violence that you suffered, that your family has suffered," U.S. District Chief Judge Ruben Castillo told the twins. They know what its like to work hard for little gain. Just short of taking his life, the accident caused severe injuries and the doctors doubted he would ever walk again. Several years later, when the bloody war against Ecuador broke out, Pedro fought on the front lines. But new records uncovered by the Tribune, as well as sources close to the family, indicate that their father's influence may not have given the twins a connection to the Mexican cartels as long rumored but still helped steer them into a lifetime of crime.
The two have been in prison since late 2008 and have about six more years of time to do. The brothers were seen as businessmen, CEOs of the street with the integrity to match. One possible answer: the instinct for survival. While it was a sizable amount of drugs for the time, it was a fraction of the operation his sons one day built, a network that stretched from Chicago to cities across the U.S. and Canada. Less than an hour later, Flores was arrested after agents on surveillance outside the house saw him put a garbage bag full of drugs into his station wagon, according to court records. They have resilience and fortitude. Together, the twins watched and listened closely as the older men peddled drugs, laughing at passing neighbors who wore suits for legitimate jobs, thinking they were dumb. The twins perfected the business beyond a father's wildest dreams. He started to recognize the direct connection between how we treat our air, soil, and water and the quality of the food that sustains us. As farming communities in the US and abroad feel increasingly isolated, cross-cultural exchange on behalf of sustainable agriculture has never been more important. The Herrera family's dynasty dated to the early 1960s in the state of Durango, a key area in the early history of Mexico's drug trade. One of my first jobs was as a dishwasher and I moved up to a busser. Marshals Service). Will they adhere to the courts instruction to separate and not contact one another once they get out? His boys were plugged directly into Guzman's supply operation that moved tons of narcotics out of South America via 747s, submarines and speedboats into Mexico before putting the loads on freight trains or semitrailers for the journey into the U.S. "Flores (was) very much an amateur compared to what his twins became," Acosta said. Chef Pedro Flores' reverence for infused, seasonal flavors dates back to his Mexico City childhood, and it enlivens the plates at Phillippi Creek Village Restaurant and Oyster Bar and The Table Creekside. Q:Are you experimenting with any fun, new ingredients lately? He has not been seen or heard from since. It will, however, be without their father. My mother, Alejandra, and my grandmother, Sonia, were my mentors; they were helping me in the kitchen all the time. MESA matched Pedro with long-time MESA host Thanksgiving Farm at the Center for Discovery in Hurleyville, NY. A:I'm very grateful and fortunate to work at two restaurants. At a news conference to announce the seizure, Drug Enforcement Administration officials said links to the Herreras would be explored. The elder Flores was born in 1937 in the mesas of central Mexico, his father a farmer and his mother a homemaker, according to court records. We invite you to join us on this journey where bold few have gone and become ambassadors for MESAs Program. The level of sophistication likely astounded their father, who two decades earlier had driven his own carload of heroin into the U.S. in a botched attempt to sell the drugs himself. At their sentencing in January, the judge highlighted how many generations of Chicagoans have been caught up in the drug trade and the high price it exacts. The twins' cooperation ultimately led to the convictions of about 40 distributors, dealers and couriers in Mexico and Chicago, including several high-level street dealers in Chicago. All rights reserved. Having previously worked with both sides and with the two new leaders locked in vicious opposition, entering into business with one would undoubtedly result in repercussions from the other. During ten years in the army, Pedro became a Sgt. "No one should lose a parent under those circumstances. Caught in the crossfire of war, raised in poverty, and hit with the jarring reality of a fluke accident, Pedro has maintained strong values and tapped into a unwavering belief system. But it all began to crash in 2008.
"There was no arrogance to him," Acosta told the Tribune in a recent interview. After narrowly escaping with his life and spending a reflective week wandering through the jungle with no supplies, relying on every survival skill he had learned, he vowed to leave the army on principal. The accident resulted in a long and painful two-year convalescence that cost him his livelihood and entire savings. We are going to have to wait five years to find out. The twins got the devastating news in the middle of marathon sessions with federal authorities, yet their cooperation continued. You need to realize that.". Pedro and Margarito Jr., 33, were sentenced in January to just 14 years each in prison far less than the life sentences they could have faced. After teaching himself to walk again, he made an earnest commitment to pursue a life of sustainable farming, improving the health and well-being of his family and community. The twins also were influenced by older brothers Armando and Hector, who both had picked up drug charges while Pedro and Margarito Jr. were still in grade school. Caught between the warring Beltran-Leyva and Sinaloa cartels, the twin brothers decided it was too dangerous to stay in Mexico. The decision to turn their back on their community, illicit as it may be, could not have been easy for the Flores brothers. He was shown $170,000 as promise of payment for 5 kilos, and Flores then told them to pick up the heroin in front of his house. Internal conflicts such as these require us to reflect on our basic human emotions and assess which choices pose the least threat to our character. A courtroom sketch shows twin brothers, from left, Pedro and Margarito Flores, 33, of Chicago, appear before U.S. District Chief Judge Ruben Castillo in federal court in Chicago on Jan. 27, 2015. The new information also demonstrates how the twins' extraordinary cooperation wound up breaking apart their relationship with their father. Flores' double life began to unravel in late 1980. I like to make complicated foods for my customers but I like simple foods for myself. Faced with a clear lose-lose situation the brothers made a surprising choice. (Tom Gianni sketch, AP). Arrested minutes later in his kitchen, he had one request of investigators. Despite the danger, the elder Flores decided to make one more journey to Mexico in 2009 to take care of personal business. At their height, Pedro and Margarito Jr. were trafficking more than 1,500 kilos of cocaine and heroin a month, more than 40 times the quantity their father moved, authorities say. Margarito Flores SR., father of Margarito Jr. and Pedro Flores. U.S. District Judge Ruben Castillo sketched the reality if they dont submit to the courts recommendations. After losing his parents at the age of seven, and then working throughout his childhood on his grandparents farm, at twelve years old Pedro was forced to move to the city to begin supporting himself by cleaning houses and doing other odd jobs. Our morality is seen to derive from interactions with our environment and the people that populate it. Feel free to join our mailing list which will give you our most recent updates straight to your inbox every once in a while. " His wife was pregnant, and he was afraid she would miscarry.". "They learned all the right steps. They had a fleet of cars and expensive toys such as water scooters and motorcycles and millions of dollars in cash on hand. A father of five, he drove a forklift at the Brach's candy factory and had a new Chevrolet station wagon parked in front of his home in the heart of Chicago's Little Village neighborhood.
But realize this: that a lot of people in this city have lost family members, sons and daughters, fathers and sons, because of drugs. And yet, the brothers combined characters and unwavering commitment to each other endeared them to a host of unscrupulous characters. Also, the scallops with pancetta pumpkin mash. The pressure on the Herreras from law enforcement eventually gave the Sinaloa cartel and an offshoot known as the Beltran-Leyva faction a foothold, and the Herreras were nudged out. Flores met the informant and an undercover federal agent at a McDonald's restaurant on bustling 26th Street in Little Village, just a few blocks from his home, the reports say. The elder Flores has been a shadowy figure in his sons' story. He has recognized that war is never worth the cost, family ties and cultural roots are a powerful force, and that the combination of a pesticide-free farm, wholesome food, physical exercise, and a supportive community has the power to heal. But in reality, Flores had already been convicted of smuggling people into the country, and in an undercover sting in March that year he was caught selling 11 pounds of heroin to an undercover federal agent in front of the family home. Five years later, he returned to help manage the farm and care for his siblings ten in all. Internal Conflict The Flores Brothers. They stayed away from the day-to-day violence of Chicago's gang-infested streets, steering mostly clear of law enforcement as they rose from Little Village to the hills of Sinaloa, where they eventually had sit-downs with some of the most powerful and feared drug kingpins in the world. "Just a regular, run-of-the-mill guy.". A:Just pizza with cheese and pepperoni. Acosta also recalled that informants told them that Flores might have even smuggled in members of the Herrera family.
He even developed a side business selling hand-made bread, a venture that enabled him to send money back to his family. As youths the twins made trips to Mexico with their father, bouncing over the border in the back of his flatbed truck, pretending to sleep atop tarps that were hiding drugs. His bread was popular, and for the first time in his life he was able to begin saving a bit of money. In a bold move the brothers agreed to wear wires and proceeded to record over 70 different conversations with El Chapo and his highest ranking members over the following months. They flipped, turning their back on their heritage and strong ties within the global narcotic industry, and came forward to Chicago police in hopes of a plea bargain. Flores pleaded guilty to possession of a controlled substance seven months later and was sentenced to 10 years in state prison. But a return home was complicated by a still-pending indictment in Milwaukee. In order to ensure their survival, the U.S. Government will place them within the Witness Protection Program, with the process requiring them to forge new identities of their own. Yet in 2008 a split within the cartel forced them into a choice between two new factions. Or will their instinct towards each other be strong enough to overcome their desire for self-preservation? That forced the brothers to make another strategic move, contacting the U.S. government to offer to give up their impressive connections to Mexico's underworld. MESA has traveled to the mountains of Peru, the crowded metropolis of Lima and to the bucolic community of Thanksgiving Farm at the Center for Discovery in upstate New York to share a little slice of Pedro Flores life with you. One of those sources said Pedro Flores once recalled seeing a television commercial in which a boy held a lamp as his father worked on a car engine. Phillippi Creek Village Restaurant and Oyster Bar 5353 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota 925-4444; creekseafood.com The Table Creekside 5365 S. Tamiami Trail, Sarasota 921-9465; tablesrq.com. Q:Aside from cooking, what is your favorite aspect of working in the restaurant industry? Inseparable since birth, many attribute their success to the brothers steadfast relationship and the rare underworld values they shared; values such as restraint and loyalty that would later become iconic of their demeanour. A:I grew up with a big family in Mexico City, so we'd enjoy a lot of Sunday meals with seafood and stews. When he returned home from prison after eight years, the elder Flores taught his boys tricks they would use and improve on later. Q:If you could eat only one dish forever, what would it be? Upon their release from jail, likely to be in 2021, these brothers will have yet another hefty decision to combat. Acosta, who has written a book about his years of undercover work in Chicago, said he had met once with Flores in the months before the buy-bust. An armed police officer stands guarding packages of seized cocaine in Colombia, 2015. Margarito Flores Sr. was by all appearances living an immigrant's dream in 1981. Twice the house on South Homan would be the target of search warrants, including one that led to a significant drug seizure, the record shows. Your California Privacy Rights / Privacy Policy. The growers cooperative has helped secure long-term markets and improve income levels throughout the region. The following March, a sting was set up as Flores drove a car loaded with heroin from El Paso, Texas, to Chicago. With estimates of maneuvering over 71 tonnes of cocaine and nearly $2 billion USD in cash, the brothers represented a considerable coup for the police force, but their connections to El Chapo himself held an even bigger bounty. A few days later, his abandoned car was found in the Sinaloan desert with a note attached to the windshield warning his sons to keep their mouths shut. He is the lead organizer of a 100 member farming cooperative where producers grow paprika and sunflower on 35 435 acres of land respectively. As an adult he served a required year in the Mexican army before marrying his wife in 1959 in Mexico. That was the last conversation they would ever have with their dad.
pedro flores childhood
