A former beauty queen with an interest in fashion, Coronel wore a green prison uniform and white face covering Thursday as she told US District Judge Rudolph Contreras — through an interprete…
The wife of Mexican drug boss Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman pleaded guilty Thursday to drug trafficking and money laundering charges related to her husband’s narcotics empire. Emma Coronel Aispuro,31, entered her plea in a federal court in Washington nearly two years after Guzman was sentenced to life in prison plus 30 years for engaging in a continuing criminal enterprise as well as drug trafficking and firearms charges as leader of the murderous Sinaloa Cartel. A former beauty queen with an interest in fashion, Coronel wore a green prison uniform and white face covering Thursday as she told US District Judge Rudolph Contreras — through an interpreter — that she understood and accepted the conditions her plea agreement. “Are you entering this plea because you are guilty and for no other reason?” Contreras asked Coronel, for each of the three counts. “Si,” Coronel, a dual US-Mexican citizen, answered in Spanish. Coronel was arrested in February on international drug trafficking charges at Dulles International Airport and remained detained pending trial. Her attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, said before the hearing that Coronel — who married Guzman in 2007 — hoped to some day get back to their young twin daughters. “This is an arm’s length plea agreement,” Lichtman said. “She’s happy to take responsibility… (to) get on with her life.” Attorney Mariel Colon, also representing Coronel, said of her client’s plea: “The only thing I can tell you is that she is at peace with her decision.
