Wife of one of the most feared drug kingpins gets jail time

A US judge has sentenced Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, to 36 months in prison, one year less than prosecutors requested after she pleaded guilty to aiding the Sinaloa cartel.

Aispuro appeared in Washington, DC federal court on Tuesday to face sentencing. The wife of the famed drug lord was charged with three counts of conspiring to distribute illegal drugs, conspiring to launder money, and engaging in financial dealings with the Sinaloa cartel. She pleaded guilty in June to all counts against her.

Prosecutors had asked for a four year prison sentence, as well as five years of supervised release.

The former beauty queen voluntarily forfeited some $1.5 million in cartel proceeds to the US government, prosecutor Anthony Nardozzi said on Tuesday.

Nardozzi added that while information conveyed between the two spouses allowed Guzman to escape the prison where he was being held in 2015, “the defendant’s actual role was a minimal one” and Aispuro had “acted primarily in support of her husband” while “quickly” taking responsibility for her “criminal conduct” after being arrested.

Guzman is currently serving life in prison plus 30 years after repeated efforts to jail him for running an ongoing criminal enterprise resulted in physics-defying escapes.

Aispuro was arrested at Washington, DC’s Dulles International Airport in February and has been imprisoned since. Her lawyer had previously expressed hope that Aispuro's guilty plea would see her able to return sooner to the couple’s twin daughters, insisting the resulting arrangement would be an “arm’s length plea agreement” that would allow her to “get on with her life.”