Mica for cartelinsider.com
Judge Brian M. Cogan of the United States District Court for the Eastern District of New York denied, on April 16, 2024, the request of Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, also known as “El Chapo”, former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, to receive visits in prison from his wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, as well as from their twin daughters, Maria Joaquina and Emali Guadalupe Guzmán Coronel, born in the United States in 2011.
According to the report by the American network CBS News, the request made by the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel was not admitted because the “confinement conditions” or Special Administrative Measures (SAM) imposed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) could not be modified by the Eastern District Court of New York.
“After his conviction, the Bureau of Prisons became solely responsible for his confinement conditions, and this Court does not have the power to alter the conditions imposed by the Bureau of Prisons. Therefore, his petition must be denied without prejudice so that he may seek modification of his confinement conditions with the Federal Bureau of Prisons,” detailed the New York judge in his ruling.
In addition to not being able to receive a visit from Colonel Aispuro and the twins, he also would not have communication with them via telephone – only two 15-minute phone calls per month – as requested by the Sinaloa drug lord in a letter addressed to Judge Cogan on March 20, 2024.
“I kindly ask for your authorization [for Colonel Aispuro] to visit me and bring my daughters, as they can only visit me when they are on vacation from school, since they study in Mexico,” reads the letter signed by Guzmán Loera.
Among the arguments presented by the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel was that Coronel Aispuro did have a US visa to visit him, which is why he presented her as the only member of his family who could go to the maximum security prison, Florence ADMAX Florence, known as the “Alcatraz of the Rockies”, located in Fremont County, Colorado, where the Sinaloa boss has been held since July 2019.
“My wife is in California and can visit me regularly, as the rest of my close family, such as my sisters, are unable to visit me because they do not have a visa to travel to the US. The only person in my family who can visit me is my wife, of course, if she is authorized,” highlighted “El Chapo” in his letter.
Extradited to US territory from Mexico on the last day of the administration of former President Barack Obama, January 20, 2017, Guzmán Loera was found guilty in February 2019 of 10 charges of drug trafficking during a criminal trial in the Eastern District Federal Court of New York.
On the other hand, Coronel Aispuro was released on September 13, 2023, after serving 2 years and 7 months in prison as part of her sentence after reaching a guilty plea agreement, according to reports from US media outlets, which cited spokespersons from the US Bureau of Prisons.
However, the ex-leader of the Sinaloa Cartel’s wife still had four years of probation remaining, during which, by order of a judge, she would have to reside in the assigned judicial district, as well as obtain employment, inform of her place of residence, not carry weapons or possess harmful substances, and submit a DNA sample, among other things.
“We can confirm that Emma Coronel Aispuro was released from the custody of the Federal Bureau of Prisons today, September 13, 2023. Due to privacy and security concerns, the BOP does not provide additional information about individuals who are no longer in their custody,” explained Randilee Giamusso, spokesperson for the United States Department of Justice agency, to the Telemundo network.
On June 7, 2023, it was reported that Coronel Aispuro had been transferred on May 30 of that same year by the United States Marshals Service from the minimum-security federal prison FMC Carswell, located in Fort Worth, Texas, to a residence managed by the Reentry Residences Administration Office (RRM) located in Long Beach, California.
The US Department of Justice stated that the woman – who was born in California, USA, in 1989 – was accused of participating in a conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, and marijuana for importation into the United States.
Colonel Aispuro, a 34-year-old American national -identified by the BOP as prisoner number 31149-509-, would be released on September 13th, 2023. In the meantime, as reported by Univisión, she would now have the “right to work, learn a trade, or rehabilitate from drug use.”
“The site recently arrived at, whose location has not been disclosed by the authorities, is supervised by a contractor with offices in Long Beach. Whether it was placed in a private residence or a halfway home, Colonel will have to complete a process of ‘reintegration into society'”, added the cited media.
On February 21, 2022, the BOP reported that Colonel Aispuro was transferred to the minimum-security federal prison FMC Carswell, located in Forth Worth, Texas, from the Alexandria Adult Detention Center “William G. Truesdale” in Virginia, where she had been detained since her arrest on February 22, 2021.
On November 30, 2021, Federal Judge Rudolph Contreras of the Federal Court for the District of Columbia in Washington D.C. sentenced the wife of Sinaloa Cartel leader Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, also known as “El Chapo”, to three years in prison on three charges related to drug trafficking.
The audience of Colonel Aispuro – who had remained until that moment in the Alexandria Adult Detention Center “William G. Truesdale” in Virginia – took place in person, in Room 23A of the aforementioned US federal court.
U.S. authorities will count the 9 months that have passed since the ex-leader of the Sinaloa Cartel’s wife was arrested in February 2021 as credit, so Coronel Aispuro was released from prison in January 2024.
Although the crimes she was accused of were serious, unlike her husband, Colonel Aispuro did not receive a life sentence thanks to an agreement she reached with the prosecutors of the Department of Justice of the United States (DOJ, for its acronym in English), since she had no criminal record.
In addition, the federal judge imposed a fine of 300 US dollars on Coronel Aispuro, as the wife of the Sinaloa drug lord had handed over nearly 1.5 million US dollars to the United States government as funds from drug trafficking. Furthermore, Contreras considered that the woman did not have the resources to pay a larger bail.
During the hearing, the United States government was represented by prosecutor Anthony Nardozzi, while the legal defense of Coronel Aispuro was handled by attorneys Jeffrey Lichtman and Mariel Colón.
On her part, the wife of “El Chapo” declared herself a “minimal participant” in the business dealings of Guzmán Loera, even though the charges for trafficking heroin, cocaine, methamphetamine, and marijuana amounted to a total of 360,000 kilograms.
“Additionally, prosecutor Nardozzi declared that within the Sinaloa Cartel, Coronel Aispuro did not have a leadership role. “Rather, she was a cog in a very large wheel of a criminal organization,” said the representative of the US government.”
In return, Federal Judge Contreras asked the New York prosecution to use as a basis for the sentence other defendants of the Sinaloa Cartel who were comparable to the rank of Colonel Aispuro in said criminal organization, which was discussed privately.
During a moment of the hearing, the wife of the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel -dressed in a dark suit jacket and pants, and with her face partially covered by a black mask-, addressed the federal judge in Spanish, and offered apologies for the damages caused.
“The wife of “El Chapo” expressed her “sincere regret for any harm that may have been caused” and stated that she feels ashamed. “Today, I feel a great pain for the suffering that I have caused my family by being in this situation. My parents instilled in me values of respect, gratitude, and honesty, but they also taught me to accept my mistakes and apologize for them,” she added.”
Coronel Aispuro said that it would be difficult for Judge Rudolph Contreras to ignore that she was the wife of the Sinaloan drug lord. “Perhaps that’s why he feels obligated to be a little harder on me. But I beg of him not to do it,” the woman pointed out.
Likewise, the wife of “El Chapo” pointed out that she did not want her daughters “to grow up without one of their parents. That’s why I beg him not to allow them to grow up without their mom.” Judge Contreras responded to Coronel Aispuro, hoping she could “raise her twins in a different environment from the one she has experienced today. Good luck.”
On November 18, 2021, the DOJ prosecution team requested a sentence of 4 years in prison, plus five years of supervised release, as well as a fine of one and a half million dollars, for the woman, who holds dual American and Mexican citizenship.
Previously, on June 10th, 2021, Colonel Aispuro pleaded guilty to conspiracy to distribute five kilograms or more of cocaine, one kilogram or more of heroin, 500 grams or more of methamphetamine, and 1000 kilograms or more of marijuana in the US, Mexico, and other locations, knowing, with the intent and reasonable cause to believe that such substances would be illegally imported to the United States.
The second offense was conspiring with others to launder the proceeds from narcotics, and the third was violating the criminal sanctions of the Kingpin Act by engaging in transactions and deals involving the property of her husband, Guzmán Loera, designated by the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) of the U.S. Department of Treasury.
The former beauty queen, mother of María Joaquina and Emali Guadalupe -the two twin daughters of Guzmán Loera, born in 2011 in the United States-, was detained on February 22, 2021, at Dulles International Airport, in the state of Virginia, near the American capital.
After the arrest, Arthur G. Wyatt, chief of the Narcotics and Dangerous Drugs section of the US Department of Justice, accused Aispuro Coronel of participating in the conspiracy behind the charges against them since 2011 and at least until January 19, 2017. She had also controlled her husband Guzman Loera’s commercial and residential properties, earning income by renting them out.
Coronel Aispuro was born in Santa Clara, California, United States, but grew up in the town of La Angostura, located in the municipality of Canelas, in the state of Durango, in the northwest region of Mexico, better known as the “Golden Triangle” of drug trafficking.
She is the niece of the deceased Sinaloan drug lord Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel Villarreal, who was a close friend of “El Chapo.” She met him at the age of 17 and married him in 2007. Guzmán Loera’s wife studied Journalism at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa (UAS).
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Mica
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