Fed's calendar reveals El Chapo drug deal in Chicago

CHICAGO (WLS) -- Nearly a decade ago, as Illinoisans were preparing for Thanksgiving, the world's most notorious drug lord was preparing for a heroin feast here according to federal authorities.

In court records newly filed in Brooklyn, New York, U.S. prosecutors say they have evidence that Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was involved in a 20 kilo heroin deal in northern Illinois on November 13, 2008. That is about 44 pounds.

Government attorneys disclosed that information to El Chapo's legal team as they prepare for trial. The Illinois deal is one of ten alleged drug transactions that prosecutors apparently intend to use against the notorious Mexican cartel boss when his trial begins, now scheduled for September. They say the various drug deals will prove a "continuing series of violations."

November 13, 2008 was also key to the fed's entire offensive against El Chapo.

That date was right in the middle of the time that a pair of brothers from Chicago, top cartel insiders, decided to cooperate with federal investigators and begin secretly working against their boss. Pedro and Margarito Flores, twins from Chicago's Little Village neighborhood, were secretly working against their billionaire boss El Chapo.

Two days after the 20 kilos were delivered, Pedro Flores covertly made a recording that would end up devastating El Chapo and his cartel. During a phone call, he got El Chapo to talk about reducing the price of the recent shipment. According to authorities this was part of the conversation:

El Chapo: "My friend!"

Pedro: "What's up, how are you?"

El Chapo: "Good, good. Nice talking to you. How's your brother?"

Pedro: "Everyone is fine. It's too bad I wasn't able to see you the other day."

Then, on tape, El Chapo is heard personally agreeing to a price cut on the 44 pounds of Chicago heroin, according to authorities. The recording-and the Flores brothers-are expected to be a double-dagger to the heart of Chapo's defense.

November of 2008 was overall a banner month for Chapo's Sinaloa Cartel in metro Chicago, investigators have said. Federal charges against him here list seven major heroin and cocaine transactions during that month, totaling thousands of pounds of illicit product...including the November 14 deal newly outlined in his New York case. That November heroin sale allegedly took place in west suburban Northlake, according to federal court records.

Court records also state that El Chapo "collected and packaged" huge quantities of cash from drug dealers during that month, totaling more than $10 million and kept in safe houses in Romeoville, Hinsdale and Chicago. For decades he controlled 80% of the illicit drug sales in Chicago-area, according to federal investigators.

The drug business deals that eventually resulted in El Chapo's arrest in Mexico and extradition to the U.S. may not be the end of his legal concerns.

He may end up also facing murder charges after several former Mexican police officers accused him of a killing spree; they say he murdered seven Americans including a DEA agent within a nine-week span in late 1984.

Those allegations have been reported by ABC-TV affiliate WFAA in Dallas, TX. Three former Mexican police officers told the US Attorney's Office in Los Angeles they witnessed El Chapo carry out the killing spree. One of them told WFAA that Chapo took pleasure in killing people. "He likes to cut the people," the former officer told our ABC affiliate.