The wife of Mexican drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán was sentenced to three years in prison for helping her husband run the Sinaloa cartel.
Emma Coronel Aispuro, a former beauty queen who married Guzmán on her 18th birthday, pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute and launder money in June to help her husband run his operation.
31 years old already was arrested at Dulles International Airport in Virginia in February, two years after her husband was sentenced to life in prison.
Judge Rudolph Conteras issued a special assessment fine of $300 for each of the three counts to which she pleaded guilty.
As part of his plea agreement, Coronel transferred more than $1.5 million in illicit proceeds from Guzmán’s illegal activities. She admitted to helping him move a whopping 450 kilograms of cocaine, 90 kilograms of heroin and nearly 90,000 kilograms of marijuana into the United States.
Speaking in court on Tuesday, Coronel expressed deep regret for his involvement and took full responsibility. She then begged the judge to consider her nine-year-old twin children, who had grown up with their parents when imposing his sentence, according to CNN.
Despite smuggling such large quantities of drugs, the courts still considered her a ‘minimum participant’ in a much larger criminal enterprise, which is why she received a relatively short sentence. .
Prosecutors asked for 48 months in prison, 5 years of supervised release, and $1.5 million to be confiscated because they argued her role was minimal and supportive of her husband and because she was fast. quickly accepted responsibility after being arrested.
Judge Conteras went under their recommendation, considering those factors in addition to the fact that she met Guzmán when she was a child and married him a year later at the age of 18.
At the end of the hearing, Conteras said: ‘Good luck. Hope you raised your twins in an environment different from what you’ve been through up until today. Good luck.’
The judge will then recommend where Coronel, a citizen of the United States and Mexico, served her time. The defense asked if it was possible she was being held near Los Angeles, where she lives with her daughters.
She pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute heroin, cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine for import into the United States; conspiracy to launder monetary instruments; and violated the Kingpin Act by engaging in the dealings and sales of the property of her husband, a substantial overseas drug dealer designated by the Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control. main United States.
Guzmán was convicted life in prison plus 30 years in 2019 for his involvement in a continuing criminal enterprise as well as drug and gun dealing as the leader of the murderous Sinaloa Cartel. He is being held at a prison in Florence, Colorado.
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https://metro.co.uk/2021/12/01/el-chapos-wife-sentenced-to-3-years-in-prison-for-drug-trafficking-15692235/ El Chapo's wife was sentenced to 3 years in prison for drug trafficking
