Emma Coronel Auspiro
US authorities arrested the wife of jailed Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman on Monday at an airport outside of Washington on narcotics smuggling charges, the Justice Department said.
Emma Coronel Aispuro (31), faces one charge of conspiracy to traffic cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana for importation into the United States, the department said.
AFP reports that she was arrested at Dulles International Airport.
Guzman was the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, one of Mexico’s most notorious drug trafficking groups.
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He ran an operation that delivered hundreds of tons of narcotics into the United States and was behind multiple murders of those who crossed him, according to court filings.
He was extradited to the United States in 2017 to stand trial, and was convicted and sentenced to life in prison two years later.
Coronel, according to the Justice Department, took part in cartel activities and also allegedly assisted in two plots to help Guzman escape from Mexican prison, including the successful first one in 2015.
It was not previously known that US authorities intended to arrest her.
A dual US-Mexico citizen and the mother of twins by Guzman, Coronel appeared in court nearly every day of his three-month trial in New York.
She had been barred from all contact with him during more than two years of pre-trial detention.
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