

The prosecutor, Anthony Nardozzi, said his wife had “aided and abetted” the Sinaloa cartel’s objectives to smuggle drugs into the U.S. They also said his “army of sicarios,” or “hit men,” was under orders to kidnap, torture and kill anyone who got in his way. Prosecutors have alleged Coronel Aispuro “worked closely with the command-and-control structure” of the Sinaloa cartel and conspired to distribute large quantities of drugs, knowing they would be smuggled into the U.S.Īs Mexico’s most powerful drug lord, Guzman ran a cartel responsible for smuggling cocaine and other drugs into the United States during his 25-year reign, prosecutors say.
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She even briefly appeared on a US reality TV show. She launched a line of clothing – with some of the items emblazoned with El Chapo’s familiar moustachioed face – and attempted to establish herself up as a social media influencer with a carefully curated Instagram feed. While – like many older narco bosses – El Chapo kept a low profile despite his fame, his wife sought the spotlight. The couple have nine-year-old twin daughters. She was 17 at the time, and Guzmán was 51. She grew up in the “Golden Triangle” of Mexico’s Sierra Madre, and reportedly met Guzmán at a local festival. US anti-drug agents worked closely on El Chapo’s arrests in Mexico, where he long evaded the law and became a sort of antihero in his home state of Sinaloa and beyond.Įmma Coronel was born in Santa Clara, California and is the daughter of Ines Coronel Barreras, a medium-ranking lieutenant in the Sinaloa cartel. “In part, this appears to send a message from the US, which says that their traditional tools of arresting high level actors and trying them in the US is not yet a thing of the past yet – even after Cienfuegos” “The timing of this arrest is interesting,” said Falko Ernst, senior Mexico analyst at the International Crisis Group. The country’s congress also approved laws limiting the actions of the DEA in Mexico – a move US officials warned would cripple cross-border cooperation on security issues.

López Obrador’s government successfully petitioned for his return, having accused the United States of acting without their knowledge and failing to act like an ally. Mexican prosecutors recently declined to pursue charges against the former defence secretary Gen Salvador Cienfuegos, who was arrested upon landing in Los Angeles last October and accused of protecting a drug cartel. Her arrest is likely to further complicate relations between the administrations of Joe Biden and his Mexican counterpart Andrés Manuel López Obrador, and comes as security cooperation between Mexico and the United States appears to have cooled.

Throughout the trial, Coronel attended court every day, even when evidence included text messages between her husband and one of his mistresses.īefore her husband’s sentencing, she told a sympathetic TV interviewer that Guzmán was a “humble” man and complained that the media had made El Chapo “too famous”.
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Guzmán was sentenced to life plus 30 years at his trial in New York in 2019.
