Emma Coronel Aispuro, a former US beauty pageant queen and wife of arguably the world’s most notorious drug kingpin – Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman – has been arrested in the US on an array of drug trafficking charges.
Aispuro, 31, who is a dual US-Mexican citizen, was nabbed at Dulles International Airport in Chantilly “on charges related to her alleged involvement in international drug trafficking,” the US Justice Department reported on Monday.
The woman, who married El Chapo when she was 18, is accused of conspiring to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin, five kilograms or more of cocaine, 500 grams of more of meth and a whopping 1,000 kilograms or more of cannabis.
In addition to the flurry of charges related to her spouse’s trade of choice, Aispuro is also accused of plotting to get her significant other out of jail on two occasions, including his daring escape from a maximum security Mexican prison through a 1.5km underground tunnel on July 11, 2015. According to the DOJ, she was also among those behind another of Guzman’s escape attempts from the same jail after his recapture by Mexican authorities in January 2016.
The plot failed to materialize after prison officials uncovered an entrance to yet another would-be underground tunnel outside of the facility.
His hopes for reaching freedom apparently dashed, the co-founder the Sinaloa Cartel then reportedly asked the authorities to fastrack his extraction to the States, complaining of dire conditions in the Mexican prison.
El Chapo was eventually handed over to the US in January 2017. He is currently serving a life sentence plus 30 years, after being convicted on 10 charges related to large-scale drug trafficking and conspiracy to commit murder.
Despite her husband’s repeated run-ins with the law, Aispuro had not had any brushes herself up until 2019, when one of El Chapo’s associates, Damaso Lopez Nunez, alleged that she played a key role in the 2015 prison break.
There were reports that the Aispuro was being “investigated for conspiracy” at the time.
In the meantime, she has tried to capitalize off Guzman’s notoriety, launching a clothing line named after her husband, ‘El Chapo Guzman,’ and has become a budding reality star after she was featured on Season 2 on VH1's 'Cartel Crew’ docu-series. Aispuro also boasts a sizable Instagram following of over 470,000.
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