A federal judge in Chicago on Friday told a sister-in-law of the notorious Flores twins, who helped bring down El Chapo, that she had “won the World Series” after he sentenced her to probation for helping her sister hide purchases made with drug money.
“Here’s the deal, this is like you just won the World Series … don’t screw up,” U.S. District Judge Matthew Kennelly warned Bianca Finnigan, 34. “You won’t get a second break.”
Finnigan, who pleaded guilty last year to a money-laundering conspiracy, is the third person sentenced on charges stemming from a 2021 indictment that accused the wives of the two brothers who once were Chicago’s biggest drug-traffickers of hiding drug proceeds from federal authorities and making hundreds of thousands of dollars of purchases with the money, spending it on luxury cars, airfare and private school tuition.
Twins Pedro Flores and Margarito Flores, who grew up in Little Village, were convicted of importing tons of cocaine into Chicago and other North American cities from 2005 to 2008. Their cooperation with prosecutors was key to convicting and securing a life sentence for Sinaloa cartel kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera.
Both brothers were sentenced to 14-year prison terms in 2015.
Vivianna Lopez, the wife of Pedro Flores, and Valerie Gaytan, married to Margarito Flores, pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges that accused them of not turning over all of the proceeds from their husbands’ drug-trafficking.
Despite handing over millions of dollars after their husbands were taken into custody, Gaytan admitted she also sent $2.3 million to her brother-in-law Armando Flores, who has admitted putting the cash under the porch of his Austin, Texas, home and doling out the money to the sister for a fee.
Viviana Lopez was sentenced to 3.5 years in prison in July after admitting she got her aunt Laura Lopez and Finnigan to make purchases that she would then replay with drug money.
Laura Lopez was sentenced to a year in prison. Gaytan and Armando Flores are awaiting sentencing.
Prosecutors had recommended a sentence of two years in prison for Finnigan, but the judge agreed with defense attorney Andrea Gambino that her client played the smallest role in the conspiracy.
Finnigan had an otherwise clean record, Gambino argued, saying that sending her to prison would cause significant harm to her family.
Finnigan said she was “embarrassed” to have gotten involved in the scheme and that she had done it at her family’s urging to help her sister.
“I’m very sorry, your honor, that I was ever involved in any of this,” Finnigan said in court Friday. “I’ve been a stay-at-home mom since I was 19 ... All I’ve ever done is take care of my kids and my family.
“I just hope and pray that you can see that and believe in me,” she added.
Kennelly responded that he could understand “on a certain level why somebody would do what you did.
“What I’m hoping you’ve learned from this is that you know the next time an opportunity comes around to do something stupid… that you pause for a second and think about [your children],” the judge said.
