Forth Worth, Texas: They Transfer Emma Coronel, Wife Of 'El Chapo', To A Minimum Security Prison

"Sol Prendido" for Borderland Beat

Emma Coronel will serve the rest of her sentence in a minimum security prison in Texas, although her lawyers asked that she be transferred to a California prison to facilitate the visit of her relatives.

Emma Coronel Aispuro, wife of drug trafficker Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán, has been transferred to a minimum security federal prison in Forth Worth, Texas, to continue serving her three-year sentence for drug trafficking and money laundering, reported the Bureau of Prisons (BOP).

During the "Presidents' Day" holiday, the US Marshals service concluded the transfer of Colonel Aispuro to the FMC Carswell prison and now her custody is in the hands of the Bureau of Prisons.

For almost three months, the location of the wife of the former head of the Sinaloa Cartel was kept secret. Two weeks ago her release date was published: September 13, 2023, for which she will serve 31 of the 36 months that a judge imposed on her last November.

The new prison to which the wife of 'El Chapo' Guzmán, mother of his 10-year-old twin daughters, arrives, is a "federal administrative security medical center with an adjacent minimum security satellite camp." It houses 976 prisoners in the medical center and 261 in the camp.

Until the publication of this note, the Bureau of Prisons did not respond to the questions made by Univision News about whether Coronel Aispuro continues in solitary confinement.

Her lawyer, Mariel Colón Miró, didn’t immediately answer the messages sent by this means.

This Tuesday marks one year since Coronel Aispuro was arrested at a Virginia airport on accusations that she had participated in Guzmán's criminal empire, being his messenger while he was in a maximum security prison in Mexico and helping to coordinate his escape. in 2015 through a tunnel that reached his cell. "El Chapo" was recaptured in 2016 and the following year extradited to New York, where a federal judge sentenced him to life in prison.

The Bureau of Prisons, which is responsible for locating the inmates in their custody, decided to ignore the requests of Coronel Aispuro's lawyers by placing her in a Texas prison. The agency has not explained the reasons.

Colón Miró said in an interview with Univision's Despierta América program that she would request that her client be placed in a California prison due to the climate, the type of facilities and her proximity to Mexico, which would allow the visit of her relatives. 

The legal defenders of Coronel Aispuro are confident that their client will be released in May 2023, four months before the time indicated by the Bureau of Prisons, considering that she has the option of serving the remaining 10% of her punishment at home or a place to help her reintegrate into society.

One of her options is to enroll her in a program that allows her to go free during the day and return at night to sleep in a correctional facility. It will depend on her conduct at FMC Carswell.

The rules of that prison include that each newly arrived inmate must be examined by doctors, given a copy of the institution's regulations and provided with information on sexual abuse and assault. Within the first 28 days of her arrival, they participate in an “Admission and Orientation” program, in which they are given details of all the services and programs offered by the prison. Those who do not speak English, such as Coronel Aispuro, receive translated material and are helped by interpreters.

Smoking is prohibited at FMC Carswell, so cigarettes, tobacco products, and lighters are considered contraband and will be confiscated immediately. They are woken up at 6:00 am and each prisoner is responsible for the cleanliness of his cell. Every morning the guards check that the beds are made, the garbage is collected and the floor is swept and mopped. Inmates are entitled to a space to place their belongings and may only have a radio, MP3 player or a clock.

What's next for Emma Coronel

The wife of 'El Chapo' had been in solitary confinement since her arrest last year, which means that she spent most of the day in a cell, had no contact with other inmates and only went out to the patio for a couple of hours. from the penitentiary.

Once she completes her punishment, the wife of "El Chapo" will be subject to four years of probation that will put her under strict surveillance by the authorities.

Some of the rules that she must comply with during this period are: reporting to the assigned federal office 72 hours after her release, she will require approval every time she changes her address, she will receive a visit from the responsible officer at any time and day, she will be obligated to seeking employment for at least 30 hours a week, is prohibited from possessing firearms, and must not have communication with persons involved in illicit activities.

Coronel Aispuro, 32, was sentenced on November 30 to three years in prison for the crimes of conspiracy to distribute drugs and launder millions of dollars that her husband illegally obtained.

The punishment that Judge Rudolph Contreras imposed on her is much less than the mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison and a maximum of life imprisonment for those who conspire to import drugs into this country and launder money.

The magistrate said at the sentencing hearing that he had considered her repentance, guilty plea, lack of criminal record and the fact that she began her love affair with Guzmán when she was still a minor and he was already a powerful drug dealer.

But he also stressed that her role in the activities of the Sinaloa Cartel focused on passing on messages and orders as the wife of one of the leaders.

Through a letter that she read, the wife of "El Chapo" said that she was sorry for the damage that she could have caused. "I know that it may be difficult for you to ignore the fact that I am the wife of Joaquín Guzmán and perhaps that is why you feel obliged to be tougher with me. But I beg you not to," she pronounced.

“Today the suffering that I have caused my family by being in this situation hurts me a lot. My parents instilled in me respect, gratitude, and honesty. But they also taught me to accept my mistakes and apologize for them (...) Those same values ​​are what I want to teach my daughters. They are the most important reason why I accept my mistakes and apologize for them. They were already growing up without one of their parents. That's why I beg you not to let them grow up without their mom, ”she concluded.

At the end of the hearing, Judge Contreras said: “Mrs. Aispuro, good luck. I hope you will raise your twin girls in a different environment than the one you experienced."

José Luis González, who claims to be the lawyer for Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán in Mexico, stated that Emma Coronel will not give information about her husband because she supposedly "doesn’t have it". In fact, she said that she pleaded guilty to belonging to the Sinaloa Cartel only as "an alternative solution for her sentence."

Before being sentenced to 36 months in a court in Washington, DC, Coronel said in her repentance. "I want to express my sincerest regret for any harm that may have been caused," she said, and she asked the judge not to allow her daughters to grow up without her mother, because they are already growing up without her father.

Univisión