United States

Emma Coronel, Wife of Drug Lord El Chapo, Will Plead Guilty to Helping Him Run Mexican Sinaloa Cartel

Emma Coronel Aispuro, wife of Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, arrives at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York, February 4, 2019 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.
Drew Angerer | Getty Images
  • The wife of notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges of helping her husband run his Mexican cartel, court documents revealed Wednesday.
  • Emma Coronel Aispuro, 31, is set to enter her guilty plea in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.
  • The former beauty queen is accused of conspiracy to distribute narcotics through the Sinaloa cartel, which her now-incarcerated husband ran for years.

The wife of notorious drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has agreed to plead guilty to federal charges of helping her husband run his Mexican cartel, court documents revealed Wednesday.

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Emma Coronel Aispuro, 31, is set to enter her guilty plea Thursday morning in U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C.

Coronel, a former beauty queen, is accused of conspiracy to distribute narcotics through the Sinaloa cartel, which her now-incarcerated husband ran for years.

She also is charged with helping Guzman escape from a Mexican prison in 2014.

Coronel, who has twin daughters with Guzman, was arrested in February at Dulles Airport in Virginia, near Washington.

Her lawyer, Jeffrey Lichtman, in an email to CNBC's "American Greed" last week, had said, "We're working on a possible plea deal."

Coronel attended El Chapo's early 2019 trial in Brooklyn federal court, which ended with his conviction on charges related to the Sinaloa cartel, which funnels massive amounts of drugs such as heroin and methamphetamine into the United States.

Guzman was sentenced in July 2019 to life in prison plus an additional 30 years and ordered to forfeit $12.6 billion. 

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