(Bioreports)The wife of drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman Loera was arrested Monday in Virginia on charges related to her alleged involvement in international drug trafficking, the Justice Department announced.
Emma Coronel Aispuro, 31, was apprehended at Dulles International Airport and is facing charges of conspiracy to distribute one kilogram or more of heroin, five kilograms or more of cocaine, 1,000 kilograms or more of marijuana and 500 grams or more of methamphetamines for unlawful importation into the country, according to a new release from the Justice Department.
She is expected to make her initial appearance Tuesday in US District Court in Washington, DC, via video conference.
Prosecutors said Coronel conspired with others to assist her husband in his July 11, 2015, escape from a prison in Mexico. After Guzman was rearrested in Mexico in January 2016, his wife is alleged to have engaged in planning yet another prison escape before he was extradited to the United States, officials said.
Guzman was convicted after a jury trial in 2019, and sentenced to life plus 30 years in a federal prison.
Jeffrey Lichtman and Mariel Colon told Bioreports they are representing Coronel.
“We’re just trying to get the full scope of the government allegations at this time,” said Colon.
Lichtman told Bioreports he had no comment.
Bioreports’s Maria Santana, Sonia Moghe and Jay Croft contributed to this report.
