(LONG BEACH, Calif.) — The wife of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was released from her California halfway house on Wednesday, after being convicted of helping run the Mexican drug cartel for which her husband was the boss, a prison official confirmed to ABC News.
Emma Coronel Aispuro was sentenced in November 2021 to 36 months in federal prison after pleading guilty to money laundering and conspiring to distribute cocaine, meth, heroin and marijuana for import into the U.S. She was also ordered to pay almost $1.5 million in fines.
Aispuro was moved from a federal prison in Texas to a halfway house in Long Beach, California, in June, ahead of her release.
It is typical for inmates who have exhibited good behavior in federal prison to be moved to a halfway house up to six months before their release, according to a Bureau of Prisons official.
She was arrested in February 2021 at Dulles International Airport, just outside the nation’s capital, and convicted of drug trafficking and money laundering charges by a Washington, D.C. jury later that year.
At her sentencing, 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.
Aispuro was also accused of conspiring with others to assist her husband 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.
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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