Emma Coronel, the wife of Joaquín Guzmán Loera, better known as “El Chapo”, was sentenced to 3 years in prison, plus four years of probation, for three charges against her.
The capo’s wife is guilty, according to Judge Rudolph Contreras, of the District Court of Washington, DC, of drug trafficking, money laundering and conspiring against the United States.
Nevertheless, Emma Coronel admitted in June 2021, before a United States judge, that she collaborated in her husband’s drug empire.
“I know that it may be difficult for you to ignore the fact that I am Joaquín Guzmán’s wife, perhaps that is why you feel the obligation to be a little harder on me, but I beg you not to do so,” said Emma Coronel on the day of today, before hearing the judge’s verdict.
For many, the life of Joaquín Guzmán continues to have several “blank spaces”, and one of them is the whole mystery that surrounds his love life. Emma Coronel, his wife, became an important part of the Sinaloa Cartel.
That’s why we share 7 facts you probably did not know about El Chapo Guzmán‘s wife.
1.- Two wives before Emma
Before Emma Coronel Aispuro, Guzmán Loera had two wives; the first was Griselda Guadalupe López Pérez, also known as Karla Pérez Rojo.
The marriage with this woman, born in 1959, occurred in the mid-1980s; in fact the couple had four children: Joaquín, Édgar, Ovidio and Griselda Guadalupe, all well known in the world of drug trafficking.
But as is to be expected, Griselda did not have an easy marriage, since she also stepped in jail, in addition to losing her son Édgar, who was shot 500 courtesy of the Beltrán Leyva Cartel in Sinaloa.
In 2012, she was in prison for one day because her financial records showed income higher than that reported to the Treasury, however, she was released after giving her statement.
On the other hand, María Alejandrina Salazar Hernández was the kingpin’s first wife, whom he met before he founded the Sinaloa Cartel.
The wedding between Alejandrina and Joaquín was celebrated in 1977. His family was also related to the world of drugs, more specifically with Héctor Luis “El Güero” Palma Salazar, who became Guzmán’s partner.
The couple had four children: Alejandrina Giselle, César Guzmán Salazar, Iván Archivaldo and Jesús Alfredo. These last two, like their mother, have been accused by the US authorities of participating in a money laundering network of the Sinaloa Cartel.
2.- His childhood and dual nationality
Emma Coronel was born in Santa Clara, California, United States, near San Francisco, but grew up in Angostura, Sinaloa, a place with just a few dozen inhabitants in the northern region of Mexico known as “the Golden Triangle” of drug trafficking.
Naturally, Emma Coronel has dual citizenship: American and Mexican; In addition, he studied Journalism at the Autonomous University of Sinaloa.
Despite the fact that she assures that her family dedicated herself to agriculture, both her father, Inés Coronel Barrera, and her older brother, Inés Omar, are sentenced to prison for being linked to activities of the Sinaloa cartel.
The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), the United States anti-drug trafficking authority assures that Emma Coronel was involved in drug trafficking since she was a child.
3.- How El Chapo met and conquered Emma
At 17, Emma Coronel was at a celebration in the vicinity of La Angostura when she saw Joaquín Guzmán for the first time.
When she was very young, she participated in beauty pageants, and in 2006 she obtained the crown of Canelas, in a city in the Mexican state of Durango.
Apparently, it was her beauty that made Guzmán, 32 years older than her, begin to conquer her. As she said in an interview, the capo “did not win her over with great gifts, but with the way he treated her.”
Naturally, the wedding was immediate and Joaquín married the beauty queen just when she turned 18, on July 2, 2007, through the church, and in an intimate family circle.
4.- The relationship between Joaquín and Emma
Presumably, marriage to one of the most powerful drug trafficking bosses in Mexico is not an easy task.
To get started, Joaquín Guzmán took Emma to Culiacán, Sinaloa, to live, as this was obviously one of the cartel’s strongholds.
In 2011 they had twins María Joaquina and Emaly Guadalupe, but she confessed that she only saw her husband when “everything was half normal.”
He assured that he never saw weapons or drugs when he was with him: “I am not aware that he traffics drugs,” he said in an interview.
“I can say that we have had a very good relationship, we have always gotten along very well. He is a very attentive man, very affectionate, very respectful, very cheerful, who makes you forget your problems.
5.- El Chapo 701
Emma Coronel tried to revolutionize the fashion industry with a clothing and accessories brand, which he presented online in April 2019, but now it is history.
Through his Instagram account, he launched a call for Mexican designers to join the project, a line of luxury clothing and accessories, with the brand El Chapo 701.
The clothing line included jackets in metallic colors or floral prints, embroidered belts, jackets, ties, footwear, sweatshirts and T-shirts for men and women, as well as accessories that ranged from caps and rings to liquors and tequila shots.
6.- El Chapo, Emma, their daughters and Boots, the monkey
Several close associates of Joaquín Guzmán Loera’s wife say that she is an exemplary mother, to the point of giving her daughters any kind of whim.
That was the case of Boots, a monkey that the parents of the twins Emaly and María Joaquina gave them, but that in the long term would be a clue to the arrest of the capo.
According to the official investigation, El Chapo was arrested “thanks to his pet”, precisely the monkey called “Boots”.
7.- Finally incommunicado
Emma Coronel could not live with her husband, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, since he was extradited to the United States in January 2017.
Unlike what they allowed him in prison in Mexico, the United States authorities applied strict isolation to the capo, since he had escaped twice from Mexican maximum security prisons.
Also read:
· “Boots”, the monkey who betrayed “El Chapo Guzmán”
· Emma Coronel, wife of “El Chapo”, asks the judge for clemency and lowers her sentence to 3 years in prison
· “Emma and the other narco ladies”: book exposes Alicia Machado, Ninel Conde and ¿Galilea Montijo?