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The United States has arrested the wife of Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, Emma Coronel Aispuro, on charges of involvement in international drug trafficking, the Justice Department announced on Monday.
Coronel, 31, a dual U.S.-Mexican citizen, was arrested at Dulles International Airport in the state of Virginia, near Washington.
The defendant is scheduled to appear on Tuesday 23rd February, by videoconference, before a federal court in the U.S. capital, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, according to the Justice Department statement.
The wife of “El Chapo”, who attracted media attention when she accompanied her husband during his trial in New York between 2018 and 2019, is accused of “participating in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana for importation into the United States,” the official statement indicates.
Specifically, Coronel faces a criminal charge of “conspiracy to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin, five kilograms or more of cocaine, 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana and 500 grams or more of methamphetamines, for illegal importation into the United States,” it states.
“In addition, Coronel Aispuro is alleged to have conspired with others to assist Guzman in his July 11th, 2015 escape from the Altiplano prison, located in Almoloya de Juarez, Mexico,” the release explains.
Once “El Chapo” was arrested again in Mexico in January 2016, his wife planned “yet another prison break” along with other associates, before the one-time leader of the Sinaloa Cartel was extradited to the United States in January 2017, the Justice Department claims.
“El Chapo” was convicted of drug trafficking by a jury in New York in 2019 and is now serving a life sentence in a maximum security prison in Colorado (United States).
Coronel, who has twin daughters with “El Chapo” and went on to create a clothing line based on her husband’s controversial figure, also attracted media attention in 2019 when she claimed she had received several death threats following the capture and release of the kingpin’s son, Ovidio Guzmán López.
