Emma Coronel Aispuro, the 31-year-old wife of Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, has been transferred to Alexandria’s detention center in Alexandria after she was arrested on a drug conspiracy charge, according to the Associate Press (You can read the full complaint here).
Aispuro was taken into custody Monday at Dulles airport, and she is expected to make an appearance via video in federal court today.
Aispuro—a former beauty queen who holds dual citizenship in the U.S. and Mexico—has been with Guzman, who once headed the Sinaloa drug cartel, since 2007; they had twin daughters in 2011.
In documents cited by the AP, federal prosecutors allege that Aispuro was involved in the construction of an underground tunnel, which Guzman used in 2015 to break out of the Mexican prison where he was being held as he awaited extradition to the U.S.
Luke Mullins is a senior writer at Washingtonian magazine focusing on the people and institutions that control the city’s levers of power. He has written about the Koch Brothers’ attempt to take over The Cato Institute, David Gregory’s ouster as moderator of NBC’s Meet the Press, the collapse of Washington’s Metro system, and the conflict that split apart the founders of Politico.
