El Chapo's wife arrested in Virginia on drug charges


Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, was arrested Monday at Dulles International Airport in Virginia on international drug trafficking charges, the Department of Justice said.
Coronel Aispuro, 31, is a dual citizen of the United States and Mexico, and has been charged with conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and marijuana in the U.S. She has also been accused of helping Guzman escape from a Mexican prison in 2015, The Associated Press reports, with court documents alleging that Coronel Aispuro worked with Guzman's sons and a person now cooperating with the U.S. government to construct a tunnel that Guzman used to escape from the Altiplano prison.
Guzman led the Sinaloa Cartel for 25 years, and in 2019 was convicted of trafficking drugs into the U.S.; he was sentenced to life in prison. Coronel Aispuro is expected to appear in federal court on Tuesday.
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Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.
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