Ex-Mexican drug lord El Chapo's wife gets three years imprisonment
What's the story
Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of powerful Mexican drug trafficker Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán, has been given three years of jail term by a US court. The punishment came after she pleaded guilty to assisting her husband's Sinaloa cartel. The charges slapped against her range from illegal drug supply, money laundering to conspiracy. She also had helped El Chapo escape from prison in 2015.
Context
Why does it matter?
El Chapo, via his Sinaloa cartel, produced and supplied drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, and heroin across the US and Europe, which became one of the largest consumers. The US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) equated him to notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar. He is anyway languishing behind bars and now Coronel's jail-time might put a stop to the drug racket, once and for all.
Details
District court judge also imposed a penalty of nearly $1.5mn
Apart from imprisonment, district court judge Rudolph Conteras also imposed a penalty of nearly $1.5 million on Coronel. After her three years of rigorous jail time, she will also be under a supervised release of four years. At the hearing, held at Washington, DC, Coronel spoke through a Spanish interpreter. She expressed "true regret for any and all harm that I may have done."
Verdict
Federal prosecutor asked for four years, sentence got reduced later
Earlier this month, federal prosecutor Anthony Nardozzi asked for a four-year-long sentence for Coronel, but then she "quickly accepted responsibility for her criminal conduct." And so, the final verdict had one year less of her jail time. Arrested in February, the former beauty queen played a "critical role" in helping El Chapo flee a maximum-security prison six years back, as per the US authorities.
Comments
Coronel had met the top-notch criminal when she was 17
Cops said that Coronel supplied El Chapo with a GPS-enabled watch that helped him cross the tunnel on a bike, also provided to him by his team. For a few months, no one knew where he was until he came for an interview with Hollywood star Sean Penn. Coronel had met El Chapo at the age of 17 and married him the next year.