The wife of the Mexican drug lord known as “El Chapo” was arrested in Virginia on Monday on charges related to her connection to the Sinaloa Cartel’s international drug trafficking operation and her involvement in helping her husband escape from a Mexican prison in 2015.
Emma Coronel Aispuro, a 31-year-old dual U.S.-Mexican citizen married to Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera, who was convicted in 2019 and is currently serving a life sentence inside a U.S. supermax prison, was arrested at Washington Dulles International Airport after being charged in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and marijuana inside the United States. Coronel Aispuro was also charged with helping Guzman Loera make his 2015 escape from Altiplano prison in Mexico, as well as with attempting to help him escape from a Mexican prison again after he was rearrested in 2016 before he was extradited to the United States in 2017. Guzman Loera had previously escaped from Mexican prison in 2001.
Coronel Aispuro was hit with a criminal charge of conspiring to distribute 1 kilogram or more of heroin, 5 kilograms or more of cocaine, 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana, and 500 grams or more of methamphetamines for unlawful importation into the U.S.
The unsealed indictment against Coronel Aispuro penned by an FBI special agent detailed multiple unnamed high-ranking cooperating witnesses who fed the bureau information about the cartel and the role played by El Chapo’s wife and family. Coronel Aispuro, who married Guzman Loera in 2007, worked for the cartel for years, and her father had also been a member of the criminal group.
The FBI agent wrote that one of the witnesses said that during the unsuccessful attempt to help El Chapo escape after he was rearrested in 2016, Coronel Aispuro claimed $2 million had been paid to the Mexican official who oversaw Mexico’s prisons in an unsuccessful effort to free El Chapo.
After being found guilty on all counts in 2019, including drug charges and murder conspiracy, Guzman Loera was sentenced to a life term of imprisonment plus 30 years for being the principal leader of the Sinaloa Cartel crime syndicate and was ordered to pay $12.6 billion in forfeiture.
“Today’s sentencing is the culmination of years of effort from numerous local, state, federal, and international partners,” FBI Director Christopher Wray said at the time. “It highlights the dedication and determination of men and women in law enforcement to bring one of the world’s most notorious drug traffickers to justice. The FBI has no tolerance for those who endanger our communities and destroy lives through drugs and violence. We’ll continue to work day and night to find and stop those who distribute illegal substances and commit unimaginable violence.”
The notorious cartel leader had been held at Manhattan Correctional Center until being moved to the all-male federal supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, in 2019.
