Emma Coronel's Brother Edgar Acquitted for His Alleged Involvement in "El Chapo's" 2015 Prison Escape

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

Édgar Coronel Aispuro, brother of Emma Coronel, was acquitted for his alleged involvement in the escape of his brother-in-law Joaquín 'El Chapo' Guzmán from Altiplano prison in July 2015.

He had been arrested back in October 2015 in Sinaloa along with Héctor Carrasco Ruiz, while he was transporting a monkey called “Botas” for his twin nieces, daughters of "El Chapo." Mexican authorities were keeping an eye on where the monkey was being moved to.

According SEIDO, Edgar Colonel Aispuro and Héctor Carrasco Ruiz, had been looking to obtain health permits so that the changuito could travel by air. Authorities looked to track where the pet monkey would have been sent to, knowing Emma and her twin daughters would be there.

When they were unable to secure the permits for the pet, they took Edgar's red Ford Mustang and were stopped and arrested by authorities.

Edgar was accused of carrying cocaine and weapons and sent to Altiplano prison, the same one from which Chapo escaped from in the tunnel. Carrasco was later transferred to the Aguaruto prison, in Sinaloa.

The ruling dismissed the charges relating to assisting in Chapo’s escape stating that not enough evidence had been provided of his involvement by the prosecutor's office.

“The accused in his preparatory statement of October 20, 2015 did not acknowledge the content of his ministerial statement of August 22, 2015; Although the mere fact that he denied his participation in the alleged crime is not sufficient proof of his innocence...the federal prosecutor's office did not provide sufficient evidentiary elements, not even at the level of evidence, to place the accused here in circumstances of manner, time and place, in the division of the illicit under study,” reads the ruling.

Despite this, Edgar Coronel remains detained in federal prison as there are other charges against him due to his familial links with the Sinaloa Cartel.

"My brother is super studious, he is super intelligent, knowing how things are he would be incapable, he doesn't know weapons, when they arrested him they put weapons on him, they put drugs on him and it took them a whole day torturing him," supposedly stated his sister Emma Coronel during an interview with Anabel Hernández.

"They hit him, they threw him to the floor, they walked on top of him, they put bags around his neck, they suffocated him, many things that are in his file and in his statement," Emma said about the arrest. 

Coronel Family Connections

"El Chapo" made Emma Coronel his third wife (though he was still legally married) in 2007 after her 18th birthday. She gave birth to twin girls in 2011; the 8th and 9th children for "El Chapo." Emma, her nanny and the twins were with Guzmán when he was arrested in February 2014.

The Coronel and Guzman families are one of the key familial foundations upon which the Sinaloa Cartel was built and the marriage of "El Chapo" and Emma was seen by many as a calculated move to bind the families. The beauty pageant where 17-year old Emma first met her future husband was said to be organized and rigged for her to win. 

Coronel's father Inés "El Uno" Coronel Barrera is behind bars for drug trafficking, having directed of drug smuggling operations along the Arizona section of the US border with Mexico. Emma's other brother Omar Inés was imprisoned as well since 2013. It had been occasionally reported that Emma's father was a cousin of slain kingpin Ignacio "Nacho" Coronel Villareal, but hasn't been verified. The father-in-law of “El Chapo” was added to the US Treasury OFAC List in January 2013, the sanctions were related to money laundering, and linked to drug trafficking.

Chapo's 2015 Prison Escape

On July 11, 2015, just two weeks after the US officially submitted extradition paperwork, "El Chapo" disappeared from view of CCTV security cameras in his solitary cell. It was the second time he had escaped. The first being with the help of prison guards in 2001, just as the US and Mexican governments agreed to an extradition treaty for drug traffickers to see justice in the US.

Edgar Coronel was accused of supervising the construction of the tunnel that allowed Chapo to squeeze through a hole under his shower drain leading to an elaborate tunnel and escape a mile underground to a nearby building turned construction site setup for the escape.

The tunnel had lighting, PVC piping providing ventilation systems and a rail track system used to extract the dirt. The same tracks would support a motobike cart. In the farm house, many of the tunnel workers tools left, including oxygen tanks, and drilling equipment. Furniture and household items also left behind indicated the men lived in the house and there was a guard area.

It was estimated Chapo spent about 15 minutes of time in the 0.7 mile escape tunnel. 3 hours after the escape and discovery of the tunnel, the Red Code alarms were finally raised.

According to the reports and testimony, Edgar had entered the tunnel to help bring "El Chapo" on the improvised motorcart and into a car. Chapo was then flown to Sinaloa and was able to evade captured for almost 10 months.

An audio transcript from the video showing his escape from his prison cell was made available later in 2015. The sound of the final construction work to allow for his escape is clearly heard on the video. So while the appearance of his cell and what he's doing isn't too forecasted; the federal prison officials who were monitoring this security feed would have easily hear the work being done.

A voice, possibly Edgar's is also heard coming from inside of the tunnel. Prison guards didn’t look for Chapo in his cell for almost a half an hour after Chapo (and likely much of the loud noise) had disappeared. It took minutes longer from them to enter his cell and locate the tunnel.

Damaso Nuñez Lopez, "El Lic," the former prison guard who helped in Chapo's first prison escape in 2001 testified that the tunnel motorcycle was driven by Edgar. They took Emma’s brother from the exit of the tunnel to a warehouse close by on an ATV. He then boarded a small plane and flew to the Sierras.

During this testimony, Emma sat without expression, fidgeting with her hair. Damaso described her as having repeated meetings with him and Chapo's sons to plot the escape.

The top 3 Altiplano officials were all fired and later arrested. The escape could not have taken place without the help of officials as inmates had kept complaining about the noise during the months of its construction and excavation. An additional construction site was used as a decoy cover for noise and underground vibrations caused by constructing the tunnel.

Chapo was ultimately captured January 8, 2016 following a shootout with Mexican Marines in Los Mochis, Sinaloa. 5 of his bodyguards were killed and 7 more wounded including a Marine.

Legal Aftermath of the Escape

Chapo's attorney Óscar Manuel Gómez Núñez was the person who coordinated the escape with El Chapo, authorities in Mexico claimed. He was noted constantly entering the prison to relay messages and provide updates. 

His bail was granted after spending three years in prison, is that “escape is not a serious crime”. In Mexico escapes are considered a natural human instinct and not usually punished by law.

One of those prosecuted for the escape, José Daniel Aurioles Tavares, head of the Department of Counterintelligence at the Center for Investigation and National Security (CISEN), declared that Gómez Núñez was the right hand of "El Chapo" because he was "the one who I took to him and brought messages and everything he communicated about the escape, said was by means of codes and signals."

He was also accused of being responsible for contacting and transmitting orders to all the participants in the escape, among them Rigoberto Martínez Dávalos or Francisco Ramírez León, buyer of the land where the tunnel was built. And also accused him of coordinating with Lazaro Araujo Burgos "El Juan," who was responsible for paying in cash for the land surrounding the prison with the site of the tunnel.

Lázaro Araujo Burgos was in also in charge of planning the construction of the tunnel. He received 7 years in prison and his son Jesús Araujo Jiménez received 3 months.

The government had previously detained 7 prison officials, including 2 of the federal police and 2 from the agency CISEN (national security). 4 were released eventually and the others were charged with failing to activate the "Code Red," delaying notification of the escape, and not following protocols.

Valentín Cárdenas Lerma, the former Director of the Federal Prison of the Altiplano was accused of being complicit in the escape. Over 60 people were arrested for their involvment or negligence in the Altiplano prison escape. But the process, while many were still imprisoned was drawn out for several years before some were released, granted bail or charged.

Sources Infobae, Infobae, Borderland Beat, Borderland Beat, Borderland Beat, Borderland Beat, Daily Mail

Categories: El Chapo, emma coronel, prison escape