Mexican cartel replaces imprisoned Chicago Flores brothers

CHICAGO (WLS) -- It didn't take long for Chicago's most prolific drug dealers to be replaced by the Mexican cartel they worked for, or for federal authorities to crack down on their successors. This comes after Chicago's notorious Flores brothers were sentenced to prison on Tuesday.

There was something lost in the festivities when Pedro and Margarito Flores were sentenced - the twin brothers' replacements. These two men have been identified as the Sinaloa Cartel's top operatives controlling the flow of cocaine and heroin into Chicago and across the U.S. Both are facing federal trafficking charges and have now been labeled as drug kingpins by the U.S. government.

The government's new Sinaloa flow chart still has Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman and Mayo Zambada Garcia atop the cartel, though El Chapo is in jail and Zambada-Garcia is a fugitive.

Two of Chapo's sons among the cartel underbosses; and right below them, are the top lieutenants who are believed to have replaced Chicago's twin Flores brothers: Victor Manuel Felix Beltran and Alfonso Limon Sanchez.

Beltran, known in drug trafficking circles as "Lic Vicc," was named in a federal indictment unsealed here on Tuesday. Authorities say he is a cocaine logistics expert and a suspected cartel money launderer.

Sanchez, aka "Chubas", is facing federal drug charges in southern California where federal agents say he was the region's primary cocaine supplier. Both men are believed to be in Mexico and considered fugitives.

The U.S Treasury Department has designated them as drug kingpins - their assets frozen by the government, making it a crime for any American to engage in financial transactions with the pair.

The past 15 years, more than 1,700 businesses and individuals have been targeted under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Act for international drug trafficking.

The kingpin of all kingpins, El Chapo Guzman, has gained ground in his fight against extradition to Chicago and other cities where he faces federal charges. Chapo has won two court injunctions in Mexico that will gum up extradition. And Mexico's attorney general has walked back his statements from this week. He now says El Chapo has to finish doing time in Mexico before being sent to the U.S.