Andy Roesgen
30 November 2021•Update: 30 November 2021
CHICAGO, United States
Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of notorious drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was sentenced to three years in prison Tuesday after pleading guilty to crimes related to her husband's Sinaloa drug cartel.
A federal judge in Washington D.C. put the sentence near the four-year recommendation by the US Justice Department.
She must also serve four years of supervised release after serving her sentence. A $1.5 million fine that the Justice Department also requested has already been paid.
Aispuro, who married Guzman when she was a teenager, played a "minimal role" in Guzman's drug empire, according to prosecutors.
Federal prosecutor Anthony Nardozzi said in court that Aispuro was not a leader in her husband's cartel but a "cog in a very large wheel of a criminal organization."
Aispuro, a 31-year-old former beauty queen, pleaded guilty to three counts in June, including conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana in the US, along with money laundering.
She is a US citizen that was initially not considered a part of her husband's crimes when he was tried and convicted for running the massive Sinaloa drug cartel in 2019.
But investigators continued to look into the escape Guzman made from a Mexican prison in 2015.
In February, prosecutors accused Aispuro of helping in that escape, along with her sons, and she was arrested at Washington's Dulles Airport.
She was not ultimately charged with aiding in the escape but has since been in custody.
Guzman is serving a life sentence, plus 30 years, for running his drug cartel. Besides his escape in 2015, he escaped from prison two other times.
He is now housed at a "Super Max" prison in the US state of Colorado.
