Wife of drug kingpin arrested in US

By James Blears

Prosecutors in the United States confirm that 31-year-old Emma Coronel, has been detained at Dulles International Airport outside Washington, D.C. She’s accused of conspiring to supply marijuana, crystal meth, cocaine and heroin.

She’s also accused of aiding and abetting her husband Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who once led the Sinaloa drug cartel, in a high profile, sensational escape from a Mexican Maximum Security Prison, via a tunnel built by rogue mining engineers into  his jail cell. They illegally obtained the plans of the jail, and Chapo was located via a GPS watch, which was smuggled behind bars to him.  Emma, who’s due to be processed in court in Washington via videolink, has yet to comment about all of the charges against her.

Husband Joaquin, is 31 years older than Emma. The couple are the parents of twin daughters. Joaquin Guzman is serving a life sentence in a US maximum security prison, after being convicted of major drug trafficking and money laundering. The Sinaloa cartel smuggles drugs to more than forty countries worldwide. El Chapo, who’s estimated to have amassed more than fourteen billion dollars from his crimes over the decades, was once listed as one of the richest men in the World,  by Forbes Magazine. 

Emma, who was born in the United States and holds dual Mexican and US nationality, attended every day of El Chapo’s three month trial in New York, describing him as a devoted husband, and a loving father to their children. A former beauty queen, she also comes from the north-western state of Sinaloa, which is the home base of the Sinaloa cartel, the most powerful illegal narcotics organization in the World. Several of El Chapo’s numerous sons are continuing the dynasty, which has survived their father’s downfall and is still illicitly flourishing.

Emma has often denied any connection to organized crime, although she married into it.