Wife of infamous drug lord El Chapo released from prison after reduced sentence
Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of infamous Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, is a free woman — released from an American prison in Los Angeles after serving just over half of her three-year sentence.
The mother-of-two was found guilty in November 2021 of three federal counts related to her role assisting the Sinaloa drug cartel, a multibillion-dollar organisation which her husband ran. The charges included conspiracy to launder money, engagement in illicit financial dealings and distributing illegal drugs. Her plea was part of a plea deal with prosecutors and she had been moved from a Texas prison to a California halfway house prior to her release. She will now serve four years of supervised release.
During the trial, Coronel Aispuro, who holds dual citizenship between the US and Mexico, admitted to being a courier between El Chapo and other members of the 66-year-old's organisation while he was being held in Altiplano prison in Mexico. He had been arrested in 2014 by the Mexican authorities.
Coronel Aispuro was charged and found guilty of three federal counts relating to drug trafficking and money laundering in November 2021 (AFP via Getty Images)She then helped him escape the prison in a scheme that garnered worldwide attention. She slipped him a GPS watch during a visit, which helped his cronies track him as they laboured tirelessly, digging a mile-long tunnel into his cell – which was located in the most secure wing of the prison, which is considered the most airtight in Mexico.
The tunnel had ventilation, lighting and even a motorcycle on rails that El Chapo used in his infamous escape. But ultimately, he was recaptured six months later, then extradited to the US, where he currently remains, locked tight in Colorado's Supermax prison following another trial in 2019 that saw him convicted of running a criminal enterprise, drug trafficking and numerous charges related to firearms.
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Mike Vigil, the Drug Enforcement Administration’s former chief of international operations, said Coronel “has been involved in the drug trade since she was a little girl. She knows the inner workings of the Sinaloa cartel.”
Coronel Aispura admitted to aiding her husband El Chapo with the running of his criminal organization while he was in prison in Mexico (AFP/Getty Images)In November 2021, Cornel Aispura was handed three years in a federal prison in Texas but was transferred to a low-security institution in Long Beach in Los Angeles, California, after serving only 18 months. The re-entry facility serves as a halfway house for inmates, usually those who exhibited good behaviour, to help them transition back to daily life following their release.
The actual details of the release were not revealed by the Bureau of Prisons. Instead, the agency stated that it was withholding certain information "for privacy, safety and security reasons."
Coronel Aispura was very present throughout her husband's trial in 2018, as were his twin daughters (AFP/Getty Images)Coronel Aispura's sentencing judge said the 34-year-old's sentence had been reduced after she quickly accepted responsibility for her actions and agreed to pay $1.5 million in fines to the US government using money she made in the drug trade. However, she must still serve four years of probation following her release, during which she'll be heavily supervised.
During the trial, she expressed "true regret for any and all harm" she had caused and had also begged for a sentence that would allow her to watch her twin daughters who she had with El Chapo, both 11 or 12 now, grow up.
Coronel Aispuro had been a beauty queen before her arrest and involvement with her husband's cartel (Instagram)
Coronel Aispuro's mugshot (AFP via Getty Images)Her defense attorneys had harped on the grooming they felt was involved in her relationship to El Chapo, who married her the day she turned 18 back in 2007 after courting her as a minor for at least a year. She and her family had been impoverished, and he had stepped in as a hero and helped out.
Prosecutors even admitted that she was simply a "cog in a very large wheel," and the judge also said that her arrest didn't result in a tremendous amount of damage to El Chapo's criminal enterprise, which is still in operation to this day. Many of its members have been sanctioned in various ways by the Biden administration for their involvement in the highly deadly fentanyl and methamphetamine trade in the US.
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