Sentencing day for Chicago twins who turned on cartel

January 27, 2015 at 1:51 a.m. | Updated January 27, 2015 at 2:05 a.m.

by Associated Press

This undated photo from a wanted poster released by the U.S. Marshals Service shows Pedro Flores, left, and his twin brother, Margarito Flores. The brothers are scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday, Jan, 27, 2015, at federal court in Chicago on drug trafficking charges. The Flores twins cut deals to buy tons of narcotics from Joaquin "El Chapo” Guzman, the head of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel in the 2000s, and later cooperated with U.S. investigators. (AP Photo/U.S. Marshals Service)
This undated photo from a wanted poster released by the U.S. Marshals Service shows Pedro Flores, left, and his twin brother, Margarito Flores. The brothers are scheduled to be sentenced Tuesday, Jan, 27, 2015, at federal court in Chicago on drug trafficking charges. The Flores twins cut deals to buy tons of narcotics from Joaquin "El Chapo” Guzman, the head of Mexico’s Sinaloa Cartel in the 2000s, and later cooperated with U.S. investigators. (AP Photo/U.S. Marshals Service)

CHICAGO (AP) - The twin brothers from Chicago are reviled by Mexican cartels but praised by prosecutors as the most valuable traffickers-turned-informants in recent U.S. history.

Pedro and Margarito Flores will be sentenced Tuesday at federal court in their hometown amid tight security.

They pleaded guilty at a secret 2012 hearing to running a nearly $2 billion U.S. trafficking franchise. Their partners included Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

The risk of reprisals to them and anyone associated with them is so great that even their lawyer's name has been kept secret.

Prosecutors are requesting a remarkably lenient prison term of around 10 years. They say it's reward for cooperation that led to indictments of Guzman and 50 others. With time served, they could be out within a few years.

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