‘A COG IN A VERY LARGE WHEEL’

El Chapo’s Wife Gets 3 Years Behind Bars for Helping Run Cartel

Emma Coronel Aispuro, who married Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in 2007, pleaded guilty to a range of drug trafficking charges earlier this year.

Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of former drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, has been sentenced to three years in prison. Handed down by D.C. District Judge Rudolph Contreras, Tuesday’s sentencing came after Aispuro was slapped with three federal charges following a February arrest in Virginia. She pleaded guilty to conspiring to distribute drugs in the U.S., money laundering, and violating the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act.

A former teenage beauty queen, the 32-year-old Aispuro married Guzman in 2007, when she was 18. She admitted to aiding her husband in running his international Sinaloa drug cartel and conspiring in his 2015 escape from a Mexican prison. Through a translator, Aispuro said she had “true regret for any and all harm” she had caused. Guzman, 63, is currently serving a life sentence in Colorado.

Prosecutors sought a four-year sentence and five years of supervised release for Aispuro, along with a fine of roughly $1.5 million. In addition to Aispuro’s three years, Contreras sentenced her to four years of supervised release. No fine was imposed, as there was no indication the defendant would have been able to pay it. A prosecutor noted that Aispuro “was a cog in a very large wheel of a criminal organization.”