Drug kingpin El Chapo’s wife Emma Coronel set to be released, say US authorities

(Reuters) – Emma Coronel, the wife of imprisoned Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, will be freed in Los Angeles on Wednesday following her arrest in 2021 on drug trafficking charges, according to the U.S. Bureau of Prisons.

The U.S.-born 34-year-old was sentenced to three years in prison in 2021 after pleading guilty to three counts of helping the Sinaloa drug cartel, including conspiracy to launder money and distribute illegal drugs and engaging in financial dealings.

She also admitted to acting as a courier between Guzman, who led the cartel, and other organization members while he was being held in Mexico’s Altiplano prison after his 2014 arrest.

Her sentencing judge said Coronel had quickly accepted responsibility and agreed to forfeit nearly $1.5 million of proceeds from her criminal activity to the U.S. government, and her three-year sentence was later reduced.

The Bureau of Prisons said on its website it would release Coronel on Wednesday from a low-security confinement institution in Los Angeles, without giving further details.

Meanwhile, Guzman is serving a life sentence in U.S. after being extradited there in 2017 following two escapes from Mexican maximum-security prisons, once by digging a mile-long tunnel from his cell.

Coronel’s lawyers did not immediately respond to a request for comment. It is not clear whether she faces charges for drug trafficking or other crimes inside Mexico.

Coronel was also given a further two years of supervised release.

Coronel has two daughters with Guzman, whom she met when she was a young beauty queen and married in 2007 at age 18.

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