The wife of Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Emma Coronel Aispuro, has pleaded guilty to charges related to helping her husband run his international drug trafficking ring.
The US-born beauty queen appeared in a Federal District Court in Washington on Thursday to enter her plea on international drug trafficking charges.
She is also accused of helping plot her husband’s 2015 escape from a prison in Mexico, as well as helping plan another jailbreak once he was recaptured in 2016.
The 31-year-old pleaded guilty to three counts – including conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana for importation into the United States. Her sentencing hearing was scheduled for 15 September, 2021.
Ms Coronel Aispuro had initially appeared to have no role in his criminal enterprise until federal prosecutors implicated her during her husband’s 2019 trial – as they said she helped orchestrate El Chapo’s two prison breaks in Mexico.
US prosecutor Anthony Nardozzi said the woman “aided and abetted” the multibillion-dollar Sinaloa cartel’s to smuggle drugs into the country from Mexico.
