(NEW YORK) — The wife of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was sentenced to 36 months in federal prison for conspiring to distribute cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana for import into the U.S; money-laundering and helping run the Mexican drug cartel in which her husband was the boss.
Emma Coronel Aispuro will also serve 48 months of supervised released.
The Justice Department initially asked for four years in prison.
In June, she pleaded guilty, and voluntarily forfeited $1.5 million to the government.
She was arrested in February 2021 at Dulles International Airport, just outside the nation’s capital.
She was also accused of conspiring with others to assist El Chapo in his July 2015 escape from Altiplano prison and prosecutors said she also planned with others to arrange another prison escape for the drug kingpin before his extradition to the U.S. in January 2017.
“The defendant was not an organizer, leader, boss, or other type of manager” a Justice Department prosecutor told the judge during sentencing on Tuesday, calling her the “cog” in a very large criminal machine.
Aispuro, through an interpreter begged for forgiveness, vowing she will teach her daughters right from wrong.
“I beg you to not allow them to grow up without the presence of a mother,” she said.
Guzman was found guilty in February 2019 of running an industrial-sized drug trafficking operation, the Sinaloa cartel, one of the world’s largest, most profitable and most ruthless drug smuggling organizations.
He was sentenced to life in prison, and has since tried to appeal the conviction.
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