Emma Coronel would plead not guilty to drug trafficking charges

After Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of Mexican drug trafficker Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, was arrested at Dulles International Airport, Virginia, on suspicion of involvement in drug trafficking, He will declare innocent before a US judge on Tuesday.

The United States Department of Justice said Colonel Aispuro, 31, With dual American and Mexican citizenship, she is accused of being part of a network that has sent cocaine, marijuana, heroin and methamphetamine to the United States.

Emma’s husband, 32 years her senior, was the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, considered the most powerful drug trafficker in the world before it was extradited to the United States in 2017. “El Chapo” was sentenced to life in prison in July 2019 and is serving his sentence in a maximum security federal prison, the ADX Prison in Florence, Colorado.

The beauty queen, famous for her extravagant outfits and expensive clothes, She is the mother of Guzmán’s two twin daughters who were born in the United States nine years ago.

Prosecutors and FBI investigators said Colonel will appear by video conference before a federal judge in Washington DC.

Jeffrey Lichtman and Mariel Colón Miró, defender of “El Chapo”, They will be the attorneys who will defend Coronel at his trial.

According to information from AFP, Lichtman answered positively when asked whether Coronel would plead not guilty.

According to court documents, Coronel faces one count of conspiracies to distribute one kilogram or more heroin, five kilograms or more cocaine, one ton or more of marijuana, and 500 grams or more of methamphetamine in the United States.

In addition, she is accused of collaborating in two plots to help Guzmán escape Mexican prisons, including the film’s escape from El Altiplano prison, located in Almoloya de Juárez, in July 2015.

The researchers indicated that Coronel, who they believe was born in California on July 3, 1989 and lives in Mexico, around 2007 she married Guzmán, a friend of her father’s who is also a member of the Sinaloa Cartel.

“Coronel grew up knowing the drug trafficking industry,” states the affidavit of the FBI agent who requested the arrest of “El Chapo’s wife,” noting that she was aware of her husband’s drug reports and knew that the income generated during their marriage from those dispatches.

He also said that, from 2012 to 2014, Coronel sent messages on behalf of Guzmán while her husband evaded capture by Mexican authorities. And when “El Chapo” was arrested in 2014, he continued to do so by visiting him in prison.

Two years ago, Colonel attended her husband’s historic three-month trial in New York almost every day, looking and smiling at him from the public bench.

The authorities did not allow the young woman to visit him or speak to him by telephone. He also couldn’t touch it during the trial, which caused a stir Coronel with the cell phone of lawyer Colón in the canteen of the court, something absolutely prohibited.

During the trial, there were times when Coronel was introduced to the public as her husband’s accomplice.

A cooperating witness who was the right-hand man of the former head of the Sinaloa cartel said that in 2014 and 2015, when El Chapo was imprisoned in El Altiplano, Mexico, he relayed messages to his employees through Coronel to plan his escape through a tunnel. 1.5 km long reaching the shower in his cell.

“My name has been mentioned and questioned several times,” admitted Coronel at the end of the trial.

“All I can say is that I have nothing to be ashamed of. I’m not perfect, but I consider myself a good person who has never intentionally hurt anyone,” she said at the time.

Coronel later announced the launch of a clothing line bearing her husband’s name and initials, JGL.

Months later, she appeared as a guest on the reality show “Cartel Crew” on subscriber channel VH1, which follows family members of people associated with drug trafficking.

In an episode filmed aboard a luxury yacht near Miami, Coronel tells Michael Blanco, the son of Colombian cocaine queen Griselda Blanco, that he wants to live a normal life.

“Sometimes you want to do what everyone around you is doing,” he said. “I consider myself a normal woman and it often happens that people judge me without knowing me.”

With information from AFP

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