{"id":114026,"date":"2021-02-23T21:30:56","date_gmt":"2021-02-23T21:30:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/?p=114026"},"modified":"2021-02-23T21:30:56","modified_gmt":"2021-02-23T21:30:56","slug":"wife-of-mexican-drug-kingpin-el-chapo-held-in-jail-on-u-s-charges-of-helping-him-run-cartel","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/precoinnews.com\/markets\/wife-of-mexican-drug-kingpin-el-chapo-held-in-jail-on-u-s-charges-of-helping-him-run-cartel\/","title":{"rendered":"Wife of Mexican drug kingpin 'El Chapo' held in jail on U.S. charges of helping him run cartel"},"content":{"rendered":"
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A U.S. judge on Tuesday ordered Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin \u201cEl Chapo\u201d Guzman, to be detained on charges she conspired with her husband to run a multibillion dollar drug enterprise while he was behind bars.<\/p> The arrest of Coronel, 31, at Dulles International Airport near Washington on Monday was the highest-profile U.S. capture of a Mexican on drug charges since former Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos was detained in October.<\/p>\n Coronel \u201cworked closely with the command and control structure of the Mexican drug trafficking organization known as the Sinaloa cartel – most notably with her husband, Joaquin \u2018El Chapo\u2019 Guzman, the leader of the cartel,\u201d prosecutor Anthony Nardozzi said at a federal court hearing.<\/p>\n \u201cThe defendant has access to criminal associates who are members of the Sinaloa cartel, as well as financial means to generate a serious risk of flight,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n Coronel is being held at an Alexandria, Virginia, jail and her lawyers are expected to apply for bail.<\/p>\n She has not yet entered a plea.<\/p>\n Coronel, a dual U.S.-Mexico citizen, met Guzman when she was a young beauty queen, and married him in 2007 at age 18. The couple has twin daughters.<\/p>\n In 2019, Coronel launched a clothing brand in the United States and she also appeared in a U.S. reality show about mafia families.<\/p>\n Prosecutors said Coronel grew up understanding the drug business and the reach of the Sinaloa cartel.<\/p> Authorities said Coronel relayed messages to help Guzman conduct drug trafficking from 2012 to early 2014, and continued delivering messages while visiting him in a Mexican prison following his February 2014 arrest.<\/p>\n They also said Coronel conspired in Guzman\u2019s famous July 2015 escape from the Altiplano prison in Mexico through a mile-long tunnel dug from his cell, and began plotting another escape following his January 2016 capture by Mexican authorities.<\/p>\n Guzman, 63, was convicted in February 2019 in a high-profile Brooklyn trial for trafficking tons of cocaine, heroin, marijuana and methamphetamine into the United States over two decades.<\/p>\n He was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years, and locked up in the federal Supermax prison in Florence, Colorado.<\/p>\n Coronel was a regular presence at her husband\u2019s trial.<\/p>\n Mexico\u2019s president said on Tuesday that Coronel\u2019s arrest was a U.S. matter but he hoped the U.S. government would share more information.<\/p>\n Joint efforts to fight drug trafficking were strained after Cienfuegos\u2019 arrest, with Mexico\u2019s government moving to restrict U.S. agents\u2019 activities in Mexico in retaliation for what it called a breach of trust.<\/p>\n The U.S. Department of Justice unexpectedly dropped the Cienfuegos case and let him return to Mexico. Mexico dropped its own case against him in January.<\/p>\n A Justice Department official said the case against Coronel is part of a long history of pursuing drug traffickers, and not reflective of a new push by the Biden administration.<\/p>\n Coronel was charged with conspiring with her husband to distribute heroin, cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine for unlawful importation into the United States.<\/p>\n If convicted on all charges, Coronel faces up to life in prison and a potential $10 million fine.<\/p>\n