The wife of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, the notorious former cartel leader, Emma Coronel Aispuro, has been released from federal custody on Wednesday, as confirmed by authorities.
The 34-year-old Coronel had spent three years behind bars for her involvement in aiding her husband in managing his multibillion-dollar criminal enterprise.
Federal prosecutors had accused her of drug smuggling into the United States and aiding Guzmán in his dramatic escape from a maximum-security prison in Mexico back in 2015.
Coronel voluntarily surrendered to federal authorities in 2021 and subsequently pleaded guilty to charges of money laundering conspiracy and the willful conspiracy to distribute narcotics.
A spokesperson for the Federal Bureau of Prisons verified that Coronel’s release from custody occurred on Wednesday. However, no further details were disclosed regarding her release.
Coronel’s attorney, Mariel Colon, conveyed in a statement that her client was “very happy to move on with this new chapter in her life, and she is ready to be with her girls again.”
The former beauty queen, who hails from near San Francisco, had married Guzmán when she was just 18 years old, while he was 50. Her status as a U.S. citizen led to the birth of her twin daughters in Los Angeles County in 2011, while Guzmán remained a fugitive.
Guzmán, who had faced multiple arrests by Mexican authorities since the 1990s while ascending through the ranks of the Sinaloa cartel, was renowned for orchestrating several daring prison escapes. One such escape occurred in 2001 when he made his way out of incarceration concealed within a load of prison laundry, leading to a 13-year evasion of authorities.
According to Coronel, she and Guzmán crossed paths at the time of his escape at a beauty pageant in Canelas, located in the Mexican state of Durango,
Coronel said: “I would say that what won me over was his way of talking, how he treated me, the way we began to get along — first as friends, and from that came everything else.”
Guzmán’s most infamous escape transpired in July 2015 when he broke free from the high-security Altiplano prison near Mexico City through an elaborate underground tunnel.
Federal prosecutors asserted that Coronel had played a role in this audacious escape, allegedly smuggling a GPS watch to her husband during his imprisonment.
Guzmán was wanted across various jurisdictions in both the United States and Mexico. Currently, he is serving a life sentence along with an additional 30 years at ADX Florence, a supermax prison located in Colorado.
