Emma Coronel Aispuro trial: El Chapo’s wife pleads guilty to charges related to husband’s drug cartel

Hello and welcome to The Independent’s live coverage of Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo“ Guzman, who is accused of helping her husband run his multibillion-dollar criminal empire.

The wife of Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, Emma Coronel Aispuro is slated to appear for a virtual hearing at 10am on Thursday in Washington before US District Judge Rudolph Contreras to enter a plea on international drug trafficking charges.

The 31-year-old is also accused of helping plot her husband’s 2015 escape from a prison in Mexico, as well as helping plan another jailbreak once he was recaptured in 2016. If convicted on all charges she faces, she could be sentenced to as long as life in prison and fined up to $10m (£7m).

Additional reporting by agencies

Born in California in 1989, Emma Coronel Aispuro, met El Chapo as a teenager in about 2007 before marrying two years later at the age of 18, when he was 47.

But who is the 31-year-old US-born beauty queen charged with helping to run the Mexican drug kingpin’s empire?

Emma Coronel Aispuro is expected to plead guilty to charges of running the sprawling drug empire of husband El Chapo, reports have said.

Reuters reported that Ms Coronel Aispuro, is expected to plead guilty but could not immediately determine what charges she will plead guilty to.

Quoting a person familiar with the case, The New YorkTimes reported the plea deal did not require Ms Aispuro to flip on the allies, relatives or business partners of her husband, Joaquín Guzmán Loera.

Justin Vallejo has the full story:

Emma Coronel Aispuro was arrested in February on charges related to international drug trafficking at Dulles International Airport in Washington DC.

She’s charged with participating in a conspiracy to distribute drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and marijuana in the US. She’s also accused of helping plot Joaquín Guzman Loera’s 2015 escape from a prison in Mexico, as well as helping plan another jailbreak once he was recaptured in 2016.

According to Reuters, prosecutors accuse her of conspiring to distribute 5 kg or more of cocaine, 1 or more kg of heroin, 500 grams or more of methamphetamine, and 1,000 or more kg of marijuana, as well as aiding and abetting.

Joaquin Archivaldo Guzman Loera was sentenced to life plus 30 years in prison by a US federal judge in 2019 following his arrest in 2016.

The Mexican drug baron founded the notorious Sinaloa cartel in 1989, building a multibillion-dollar drug enterprise and criminal empire.

The kingpin made two prison breaks before being extradited to the US and locked up in the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado, following his 2019 trial.

Despite her status as the wife of the world’s most notorious drug boss, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, Emma Coronel Aispuro lived mostly in obscurity -- until her husband went to prison for life.

Then, suddenly, she was a presence on social media. There was talk of launching a fashion line. Even an appearance on a reality show dedicated to the families of drug traffickers.

Until the trial, “Emma had remained anonymous like practically all of partners of Sinaloa cartel capos,” said Adrián López, executive editor of Sinaloa’s Noroeste newspaper. Then, “she begins to take on more of a celebrity attitude. ... This breaks a tradition of secrecy and a style specifically within the leadership of the Sinaloa cartel.”

Read the full story:

Reporting by the Associated Press

In 2015, police in Mexico and the US have uncovered an 875-yard drug-smuggling tunnel linking the Mexican city of Tijuana to San Diego in California used by the Sinaloa cartel.

The passage was believed to be one of the longest ever constructed beneath the US-Mexican border, and connecting two warehouses in the neighbouring cities and is approximately 10m underground.

It had lighting, ventilation, and a rail system to move loads from one end to the other. It is said to have been built for the Sinaloa cartel, which controls the region’s drug trade.

Take a closer look at the tunnel used by the cartel:

Emma Coronel Aispuro looks expressionless in her booking photograph by Alexandria Sheriff's office following her arrest in February. The former beauty queen posed for the mug shot after being booked at Alexandria Adult Detention Center on 22 February 2021 in Alexandria, Virginia.