Mexican drug cartel leader's wife arrested for "drug trafficking"

The wife of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the jailed former leader of Mexico's Sinaloa drug cartel, has been arrested for her alleged involvement in international drug trafficking.

Emma Coronel Aispuro, 31, who regularly attended her husband's trial two years ago, was arrested Monday at Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia and is expected to appear in federal court in Washington by video conference on Tuesday.

A Coronel attorney could not be immediately identified. It was unclear why Coronel, a dual American and Mexican citizen, was in the Washington DC area.

Coronel's arrest came two years after a trial in Brooklyn where Guzman, now 63, was convicted of trafficking tons of drugs to the United States as the leader of Sinaloa. Prosecutors at the trial said Guzman had amassed power through killings and wars with rival cartels.

According to the sentencing judge, he was sentenced in July 2019 to life in prison plus 30 years, reflecting Guzman's "overwhelmingly evil" actions. Guzman was sent to ADX Florence in Colorado, the U.S.'s safest prison.

Coronel was charged on Monday with conspiracy to distribute heroin, cocaine, marijuana, and methamphetamines for illegal imports into the U.S.

Prosecutors allege Coronel also conspired to help her husband in his July 2015 escape from Altiplano prison in Mexico. He dug a mile-long tunnel out of his cell and began planning a second escape after being captured by Mexican authorities in January 2016.

According to the complaint, as much as $ 2 million was paid to an unnamed Mexican official, who oversaw the country's prisons, to facilitate Guzman's second attempt to escape.

U.S. and Mexican efforts to curb drug trafficking became tense in October when the U.S. Department of Justice charged drug charges against former Mexican Secretary of Defense Salvador Cienfuegos.

The Justice Department unexpectedly dropped the case next month and returned Cienfuegos to Mexico, which Mexico said would help restore confidence.

Cienfuegos was released two months later when Mexico dropped its own case.

Tomas Guevara, a security investigator at Sinaloa Autonomous University, said Coronel's arrest could be part of a "pressure strategy" to bring Guzman's cooperation.