MEXICO CITY – U.S.-born wife of jailed drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was arrested Monday for allegedly helping her husband run her drug empire and fleeing a maximum-security Mexican prison , said the U.S. Department of Justice.
Emma Coronel, 31, who married Mr. Guzman when she was a teenage beauty queen, was arrested at Dulles Airport in Washington. For five years, while her husband was on the run and in prison, Mrs. Colonel acted as Mr. Guzmán’s messenger, sending instructions to the associates who dealt with the increase in heroin production, the payment of bribes, the purchase of weapons and the attempted expulsion of Mr. Guzmán. of imprisonment, according to an affidavit of arrest.
Colonel, believed to be Mr. Guzman’s third or fourth wife, is accused of conspiring to distribute heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine and marijuana in the U.S., according to the affidavit, signed by a Federal Bureau of Investigation agent. She could not be reached for comment. Judicial records do not indicate any attorney for Mrs. Colonel.
Ms. Colonel’s arrest could add new friction to U.S.-Mexico relations. He arrives months after the October arrest in Los Angeles of General Salvador Cienfuegos, Mexico’s former defense minister, as he and his family arrived on a family vacation. A month later, U.S. officials withdrew the charges after Mexico complained that it had remained in the dark about the U.S. investigation and threatened to disrupt drug cooperation.
The former general was returned to Mexico, where he eventually retired from office after Mexican prosecutors said the U.S. case was weak. The U.S. Department of Justice said it maintained its case.