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Emma Coronel, the 34-year-old wife of convicted Mexican drug lord El Chapo, was released from United States prison on Wednesday, September 13, after she was arrested in 2021 on drug trafficking charges and sentenced to three years behind bars.
The US-born beauty queen, whose father Inés Coronel, served as a high-ranking member of the El Chapo-led Sinaloa drug cartel, had stood by her husband when he stood trial for his crimes in the Brooklyn courtroom in 2019. At the time she told the New York Times that her husband was innocent and described him as " an excellent father, friend, brother, son, partner."
For nearly two years, Emma Coronel remained loyal to her husband, who was convicted and sentenced to life in prison in 2019. However, In 2021, she was arrested at Dulles Airport, near Washington DC, on drug trafficking charges.
Prosecutors accused Coronel of running interference between her husband and the Sinaloa drug cartel while he was being held in Mexico’s Altiplano prison after his 2014 arrest. The prosecutors contended that she was well aware of her husband's criminal activities and "understood the scope of the Sinaloa cartel's drug trafficking.”
Shortly after, she pleaded guilty to drug trafficking and money laundering and asked the judge for leniency, who sentenced her to three years in prison, which was later reduced, paving the way for an earlier release.
Netizens react as El Chapo's wife Emma Coronel released from prison
El Chapo's wife Emma Coronel's release from prison has sparked hilarious reactions online over her blind loyalty toward her husband during his trial. Through El Chapo’s trial and afterwards Coronel has maintained that she was unaware her husband was a notorious drug lord. The news of her early release prompted a netizen to quip, "Buchonas don't snitch.” Buchonas is a Spanish term used to describe an attractive paramour of a gangster.
Several others posted hilarious memes regarding her blind loyalty towards her husband. A netizen impressed over her impenetrable fealty quipped:
“My ex would have sold me out for a Smirnoff Ice and a pack of darts.”
Meanwhile, others shared their hilarious reactions online:
What we know about el Chapo's recently released wife Emma Coronel
Emma Coronel, who holds dual US-Mexican nationality, first met El Chapo, whose real name is Joaquin Guzmán, when she was competing in a local beauty pageant at 17.
At the time, the Mexican drug lord in his 50s was running the Sinaloa cartel from various hideouts in Mexico after he had escaped from prison in a laundry cart in 2001. Meanwhile, Coronel's father, Inés Coronel, was working for the Sinaloa cartel. He is currently serving a 10-year sentence in Mexico for drug smuggling.
In 2008, El Chapo married Emma Coronel when she turned 18, and three years later, she travelled to California to give birth to the couple's twin daughters so they could have US citizenship.
Following a 13-year- manhunt, El Chapo was arrested in 2014 and sent to the Altiplano maximum security jail in Mexico, where he escaped through a tunnel in 2015.
In 2016, Guzman was again captured outside his Los Mochis home in Sinaloa. In 2017, he was extradited to the US and put on trial in New York. In 2019, he was found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. He is currently being held in Colorado in a “supermax” prison.
Meanwhile, Emma Coronel, who was released from a minimum security facility in Los Angeles, must serve an additional two years of supervised release. The couple’s children are in Mexico.
