The Mexican drug lord known as El Chapo – “Baixinha” – is said to have met the elegant teenage daughter of one of his lieutenants at a ball in a small town. In love, he later threw a lavish party to support his proposal to become a beauty pageant queen.
She was just 18 – and more than three decades younger than he was – when they married in 2007 in the city of La Angostura, in the depths of Sierra Madre and in the heart of the so-called Golden Triangle of heroin production in Mexico.
Years later, dressed in designer clothes and high-heeled shoes, she was a daily presence that pleased the paparazzi while Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman faced his trial at the United States District Court in Brooklyn as the leader of the Sinaloa cartel.
On Monday, US officials arrested Emma Colonel Aispuro at Dulles International Airport in Virginia, claiming she was more than the loyal and fashion-conscious wife of the world’s most famous narco.
Mirroring some of the allegations that toppled her husband, Colonel – a citizen of the United States and Mexico – faces charges of participating in a broad conspiracy to distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana in the United States.
After Guzman was arrested in Mexico, an FBI testimony says, his wife acted as an “intermediary and messenger”, transmitting her orders to the lieutenants and four children, all allegedly high-ranking members of the cartel.
American officials claim that she helped with her sensational escape from prison in 2015, when Guzmán fell into a hole dug under the shower in his Mexican cell and jumped on a motorcycle mounted on rails, which took him free through a kilometer-long tunnel. extension.
Colonel allegedly met with Guzmán’s son to discuss the plan, which involved buying land and a warehouse near the prison, along with firearms and an armored truck, according to an FBI statement.
Guzmán was captured six months later in the city of Los Mochis, on the Pacific coast of Mexico.
The FBI said his wife later helped organize a second escape scheme for which a confederate from Guzman received about $ 1 million – and told a “cooperating witness” that a senior prison officer received $ 2 million for help. The prison chief was not identified.
But that plan never came to fruition. Guzmán was extradited to the United States in January 2017.
A U.S. district judge in New York sentenced Guzmán to life in prison in July 2019 after a jury found him guilty of drug trafficking, money laundering and conspiracy to commit murder.
Prosecutors also sought an order demanding that Guzman return more than $ 12.6 billion in assets – the approximation of his drug earnings over the decades. His lawyers considered the request absurd and said he had nothing close to it.
With her husband in United States custody, Colonel has been a frequent poster on Instagram and an occasional visitor to the United States.
In September 2018, while Guzmán and his lawyers were preparing for the trial in New York, photos appeared on Instagram detailing a birthday party that Colonel threw to the couple’s twin daughters, who were born in 2011 at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster.
The decadent party featured carnival rides, hundreds of pink balloons and a setting with gold chandeliers and a pink throne.
Colonel wore 10 cm heels and posed in front of a fake pink mansion and a long table covered with flowers, desserts and a huge birthday cake.
The following year, while Guzmán, 64, was awaiting sentencing, Colonel said on Instagram that he was launching a fashion line inspired by her husband’s style. His image – square chin, round eyes, black mustache – is stamped on caps, t-shirts and posters in Mexico, especially in his home state of Sinaloa, where many consider him a hero and figure of Robin Hood who helped the poor.
In court, Colonel was in part spectacle and enigma. She spent most days of her husband’s trial in the second row of the gallery, in silence, but impossible to miss.
In the opening statements, the pair had had no direct contact for two years. Still, his request to be able to hug him once before the trial started was denied.
Guzmán would seek her out from the moment he was taken to court every day. The couple used to wave and flirt, sometimes to the dismay of U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan.
When she brought her twins to court, Guzmán couldn’t take his eyes off them. Colonel always complained about her husband’s lawyers about her ties, her expression, her health.
Although she rarely spoke to the press, she never dodged the cameras outside the courtroom. Her chic clothes – designer jeans, high-heeled shoes, military blazers and velvet jumpsuits – drew a lot of attention, and she was meticulous with her makeup. But suspicion hung over her.
His uncle, Ignacio Coronel – the so-called Crystal King for his role in smuggling methamphetamine to the United States – was killed in a 2010 shootout with the Mexican military. He was considered number three in the Sinaloa cartel hierarchy. The authorities claim that Colonel’s father, currently imprisoned in Mexico, “coordinated the transportation of narcotics” to the Sinaloa cartel.
During the trial, many speculated that she was more involved in her husband’s business than she let on. She was forced to go through the metal detector twice before a sensitive witness was brought in to testify, worried that she might smuggle a cell phone to take a picture of him.
As the weeks went by, it was impossible for Colonel to hide his boredom. She shifted in her chair and played with her long hair, and was scolded for using her attorney’s phone in court.
Her arrest echoed on social media, especially in Mexico, where many ironically suggested that Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador would help her return her to Mexico – as she did in the case of a former Mexican defense chief arrested in Los Angeles last year alleged drug trafficking.
“Don’t worry, Emma,” wrote former President Vicente Fox on Twitter. “The President will come to your rescue !!”
McDonnell reported from Mexico City and Sharp from Los Angeles. Times editors Kate Linthicum in Mexico City, Tracy Wilkinson in Washington and special correspondent Cecilia Sánchez in Mexico City also contributed to this report.