Emma Coronel's Fate Is Written Today

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

The fate of Emma Coronel Aispuro, wife of drug trafficker Joaquín el Chapo Guzmán, will enter its final stage Tuesday, when a federal judge determines the sentence that the former beauty queen must pay before the US justice system, after pleading guilty to charges related to drug trafficking, money laundering, and conspiracy.

Although the accusations against Colonel Aispuro are enough to plunge her into prison for up to 14 years, prosecutors in the case led by Arthur G. Wyatt, suggested to Judge Rudolph Contreras that the punishment be for 48 months in addition to confiscating $1,499,970, an amount that the accused consented to pay.

"It is a not so severe sentence, true, but surely it is a sentence that is based on some negotiation that the accused made with the US prosecutor's office, and the fact that she is a mother of a family will also influence the judge's decision," said Louis V. Sáenz, Cameron County prosecutor, Texas.

The negotiation could have included a series of arguments by the defense, who has insisted on several occasions that the reason why the accused decided to plead guilty and no longer return to Culiacán, was because she felt insecure that people linked to the different factions of the cartel could harm her.

That argument, and the court's premise for balancing the deterrent effect with the acceptance of the accused's responsibility, last June, influenced prosecutors to determine to suggest that the accused be sentenced to a sentence not exceeding 48 months.

"There are many situations in which prosecutors should not reveal the agreements they make with the accused, and they are not obliged to do so, but that agreements are made, no doubt," Sáenz insisted.

Even though Coronel Aispuro benefited economically from her husband's criminal activities, in addition to helping him escape from Altiplano prison in the State of Mexico in July 2015, it is also true that, unlike other Mexican drug lords who are tried on similar charges, the other reality is that the accused does not have a criminal record, but there is also the fact that she decided.

The 48 months in prison suggested by the prosecutors is not everything, since the prosecutors' suggestion also includes that Emma Coronel be supervised for the five years after her release, and maintaining impeccable behavior could really achieve total freedom, and only then can she return to Mexico.

Colonel Aispuro, 31, of Mexican and American nationality, was arrested on February 22, at Dulles International Airport, Virginia. 

When she was brought before the judge, accused of conspiracy and drug trafficking charges, Emma pleaded not guilty, but five months later, last June, she changed her statement and accepted the charges of illicit association to traffic cocaine, methamphetamines, heroin and marijuana, money laundering and participation in property transactions belonging to a drug trafficker.

It is believed that, from that moment on, she agreed to cooperate with the prosecutors in the case, and the prosecutors agreed to suggest to Judge Contreras a not so severe sentence.

"Emma Coronel always knew herself lost, and those who know her knew that the former beauty queen did not know American laws, and the fact of having been arrested would put her on the wall, she quickly hired a good legal team that undoubtedly advised her well," said people familiar with the case.

Emma Coronel married El Chapo, 32 years older than her, in July 2007, at a home in Canelas, Durango, in a very simple private ceremony attended by only relatives close to the couple, and since then the former beauty queen has achieved international fame as the capo's wife.

Colonel Aispuro is currently being held in Alexandria prison, very close to Washington DC.

Article published on November 28, 2021 in the 983rd edition of the weekly Ríodoce.

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