Chicago’s ‘cartel wives’ traveled abroad, to J.Lo Las Vegas concert with drug cash, feds say

Pedro Flores, left, and his brother Margarito, once the biggest drug traffickers in Chicago. | U.S. Marshals Service

After Chicago cocaine kingpins Pedro Flores and Margarito Flores were arrested in 2008 for their dealings with Sinaloa drug cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, their wives took lavish trips to the Caribbean and Europe that were paid for with bundles of suspected drug cash they got in the mail, according to a court document.

Vivianna Lopez and Valerie Gaytan used drug money for the trips in 2018 and 2019, flying to Las Vegas for a Jennifer Lopez concert and to the Turks and Caicos islands, Dubai, Greece and Italy, a federal postal inspector said in an affidavit for a 2019 search warrant that’s only now been made public.