Aispuro charged with conspiracy to distribute drugs in the United States and charged with helping her husband escape a Mexican prison in 2015

File photo of Emma Coronel Aispuro, center, wife of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman AP

Washington: The wife of Mexican drug leader Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was arrested Monday in the United States on charges of helping her husband run his multi-billion dollar cartel and preparing for his daring escape from a Mexican prison in 2015

Emma Coronel Aispuro, a 31-year-old former beauty queen, was arrested at Dulles International Airport in Virginia and is scheduled to appear in federal court in Washington on Tuesday She has dual citizenship of the United States and Mexico

His arrest is the latest twist in the bloody multinational saga involving Guzman, the longtime leader of the Sinaloa Guzman drug cartel, whose two dramatic Mexican prison breaks have fueled a legend that he and his family were almost untouchable, was extradited to the United States in 2017 and is serving a life sentence

And now his wife, with whom he has two young daughters, has been accused of helping him run his criminal empire In a single count criminal complaint, Aispuro has been charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and marijuana in the United States The Justice Department also accused her of helping her husband escape a Mexican prison in 2015 and of participating in planning a second prison escape before Guzman was extradited to the United States

As Mexico’s most powerful drug lord, Guzman led a cartel responsible for smuggling mountains of cocaine and other drugs into the United States during his 25-year reign, the prosecutors in recent court documents They also said his “army of sicarios” or “contract killers” had been ordered to kidnap, torture and kill anyone who stood in their way.

His prison escapes became legendary and raised serious questions about whether the Mexican justice system was able to hold him accountable In one case, he escaped through a shower entry into his cell for up to a millennium (1 6-kilometer-long illuminated tunnel with a motorcycle on rails took a long time planning for the escape, prosecutors say, his wife playing a key role

Court documents accuse Aispuro of working with Guzman’s sons and a witness, who is now cooperating with the US government, to organize the construction of the underground tunnel that Guzman used to escape the Altiplano prison to prevent his extradition to the United States The plot included the purchase of land near the prison, guns and an armored truck and smuggling a GPS watch so that they could “pinpoint exactly where it is in order to build the tunnel with a entry point accessible to him “, court documents say

Aispuro, who was a beauty queen as a teenager, regularly attended Guzman’s trial, even when testimonies implicated her in his prison escapes The two, separated by the age of over 30, are together since at least 2007 and their twin daughters were born in 2011

His father, Ines Coronel Barreras, was arrested in 2013 along with one of his sons and several other men in a warehouse with hundreds of pounds of marijuana across the border from Douglas, Arizona. months earlier, the US Treasury announced financial sanctions against his father for his alleged drug trafficking

After Guzman was re-arrested after her escape, Aispuro lobbied the Mexican government to improve her husband’s detention conditions And after being convicted in 2019, she decided to launch a clothing line in his name

Mike Vigil, former head of international operations for the Drug Enforcement Administration, said Aispuro “has been involved in drug trafficking since she was little. She knows the inner workings of the Sinaloa cartel”

Said she might be willing to cooperate “She has a huge motivation, and these are her twins,” Vigil said

Date of update:

Feb 23, 2021 3:48:13 PM IST

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Police also said they were keeping a watchful eye on Goswami and her friend Prabeer Kumar Dey following a complaint from her father in April last year.

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El Chapo’s wife