'El Chapo' aide pleads guilty to drug charges in Chicago
CHICAGO - A man considered one of the chief aides to convicted Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera pleaded guilty Friday to a federal drug charge in a Chicago courtroom.
Felipe Cabrera Sarabia, 51, known as "The Engineer," was extradited to face charges in June 2020. Prison records show he has most recently been held in the downtown Metropolitan Correctional Center.
During a hearing before U.S. District Judge Sharon Johnson Coleman, Sarabia said through an interpreter that he had "always made a living as a cattle rancher."
But he now faces a minimum of 10 years in prison — and a maximum of life — after admitting before Coleman that he distributed more than 150 kilograms of cocaine and more than 30 kilograms of heroin.
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Sarabia’s sentencing is set for July 7.
Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrew Erskine told Coleman that Sarabia had been involved in an October 2008 meeting with Guzman, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada and Margarito Flores of Chicago — who had secretly agreed with his brother Pedro to cooperate with the feds.
TOPSHOT - Mexican drug trafficker Joaquin Guzman Loera aka "el Chapo Guzman" (C), is escorted by marines as he is presented to the press on February 22, 2014 in Mexico City. The Sinaloa cartel leader - the most wanted by US and Mexican anti-drug agen
During the meeting, Margarito Flores agreed to purchase heroin from Zambada.
Erskine quoted from recorded phone calls that followed between Sarabia and the Flores twins. During one of those calls, Erskine said Margarito Flores told Sarabia the heroin from Guzman was better than the heroin from Zambada.
"Cabrera offered to look into it and send heroin closer in quality to Guzman Loera’s heroin in the future," Erskine said.
The prosecutor said Sarabia was paid $715,000 as part of the deal.
A judge sentenced the Flores twins in 2015 to 14 years in prison. Their wives are currently under indictment for a money-laundering conspiracy.
Sarabia was originally charged along with Guzman and others in a sweeping 2009 indictment in Chicago. Guzman wound up being prosecuted in Brooklyn, though, and he is now serving a life prison sentence.