Wife of Mexican drug kingpin ‘El Chapo’ held in jail on U.S. charges of helping him run cartel

A U.S. judge on Tuesday ordered Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, to be detained on charges she conspired with her husband to run a multibillion dollar drug enterprise while he was behind bars.

The arrest of Coronel, 31, at Dulles International Airport near Washington on Monday was the highest-profile U.S. capture of a Mexican on drug charges since former Defense Minister Salvador Cienfuegos was detained in October.

Coronel “worked closely with the command and control structure of the Mexican drug trafficking organization known as the Sinaloa cartel – most notably with her husband, Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, the leader of the cartel,” prosecutor Anthony Nardozzi said at a federal court hearing.

“The defendant has access to criminal associates who are members of the Sinaloa cartel, as well as financial means to generate a serious risk of flight,” he added.

Coronel is being held at an Alexandria, Virginia, jail and her lawyers are expected to apply for bail.

She has not yet entered a plea.