The Mexican drug lord known as El Chapo – “Shorty” – is said to have first met the elegant teenage daughter of one of his lieutenants at a dance party in a small town. Smitten, he later staged a lavish bash to support her bid to become a beauty pageant queen.
She was only 18 – and more than three decades younger than him – when they married in 2007 in the city of La Angostura, deep in the Sierra Madre and at the heart of Mexico’s so-called Golden Triangle of heroin production.
Years later, decked out in designer clothes and spiked heels, she was a paparazzi-pleasing everyday presence when Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman faced his legal settlement in the US court in Brooklyn as the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel.
On Monday, US authorities arrested Emma Coronel Aispuro at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, claiming she was more than the loyal and fashion-conscious wife of the world’s most infamous narco.
A citizen of both the US and Mexico, Coronel echoes some of the allegations made to her husband, and is accused of participating in a widespread conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana in the United States.
After Guzman was incarcerated in Mexico, an FBI statement said, his wife acted as a “middleman and messenger,” relaying his orders to his lieutenants and his four sons, all of whom are reportedly senior cartel members.
U.S. authorities allege she aided in his sensational 2015 jailbreak, when Guzmán fell into a hole shoveled under the shower of his Mexican cell and jumped on a rail-mounted motorcycle, which took him through a tunnel of a miles to freedom.
According to an affidavit from the FBI, Coronel would have met with Guzmán’s son to discuss the plan, which involved buying land and a warehouse near the prison, along with firearms and an armored truck.
Guzmán was captured six months later in Los Mochis, Mexico, on the Pacific coast.
The FBI said his wife later helped organize a second escape plan for which a Guzmán ally received about $ 1 million – and told a “cooperating witness” that a senior prison official had been given $ 2 million to help. The head of the prison has not been identified.
But that plan never materialized. Guzmán was extradited to the United States in January 2017.
A US district judge in New York sentenced Guzmán to life in prison in July 2019 after a jury found him guilty of drug trafficking, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder.
Prosecutors also sought a warrant demanding that Guzman turn over more than $ 12.6 billion in assets – their approach to his drug revenues over the decades. His lawyers called the request ridiculous, saying he had nothing nearby.
With her husband in US custody, Coronel is a frequent poster on Instagram and an occasional visitor to the United States.
In September 2018, as Guzmán and his lawyers were preparing for a trial in New York, photos popped up on Instagram showing a birthday party that Coronel hosted for the couple’s twin daughters, who were born in 2011 at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster.
The decadent bash consisted of fairground rides, hundreds of pink balloons, and a set of gold chandeliers and a pink throne.
Wearing 4-inch heels, Coronel posed in front of a fake pink mansion and a long table full of flowers, desserts and a sky-high birthday cake.
The following year, when Guzmán, 64, was awaiting sentencing, Coronel said on Instagram that she launched a clothing line inspired by her husband’s style. His image – square jaw, beady eyes, black mustache – is adorned on ball caps, T-shirts and posters in Mexico, especially in his home state of Sinaloa, where many consider him a hero and a Robin Hood figure helping the poor.
In court, Coronel was both spectacle and enigma. She spent almost every day of her husband’s trial in the second row of the gallery, quiet but impossible to miss.
Opening statements, the couple had been out of direct contact for two years. Still, her request to give him a hug before the trial began was denied.
Guzmán would be looking for her from the moment he was ushered into court every day. The pair waved and flirted frequently, sometimes much to the dismay of US District Judge Brian Cogan.
When she took their twins to court, Guzmán couldn’t take his eyes off them. Coronel often worried with her husband’s attorneys about his ties, his expression, his health.
Although she rarely spoke to the press, she never shied away from the cameras outside of court. Her chic outfits – designer jeans, sky-high stilettos, military blazers and velvet bodysuit – got a lot of attention, and she was picky about her makeup. But suspicion hung over her.
Her uncle, Ignacio Coronel – the so-called King of Crystal for his part in the smuggling of methamphetamine to the United States – was killed in a shootout with the Mexican military in 2010. He would be number three in the Sinaloa Cartel hierarchy. Authorities allege that Coronel’s father, who is currently detained in Mexico, “coordinated drug shipments” for the Sinaloa cartel.
During the trial, many speculated that she was more involved in her husband’s business dealings than she let on. She had to go through the metal detector twice before a sensitive witness was brought in to testify, out of concern she would smuggle in a cell phone to take his photo.
As the weeks progressed, it was impossible for Coronel to hide her boredom. She fiddled in her chair and played with her long hair, and was scolded for using her lawyer’s phone in court.
Her arrest echoed on social media, especially in Mexico, where many suggested with an ironic wink that Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador would help her get her back to Mexico – as he did in the case of a former Mexican defense who in Los Angeles had been arrested. last year for alleged drug trafficking.
“Don’t worry, Emma,” ex-president Vicente Fox wrote on Twitter. “The president comes to the rescue !!”
McDonnell reported from Mexico City and Sharp from Los Angeles. Times staff writers Kate Linthicum in Mexico City, Tracy Wilkinson in Washington, and Mexico City special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez also contributed to this report.