Wife of drugs kingpin El Chapo ‘will plead guilty to helping run drugs cartel’

Emma Coronel Aispuro, the wife of Mexican narcotics kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, is expected to plead guilty this week to federal charges of helping him run the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel, The New York Times reported on Tuesday.

The Times, citing an unnamed person familiar with the case, reported that Coronel would appear in Federal District Court in Washington on Thursday morning to enter her plea.

Her plea agreement will not require her to cooperate with US authorities or provide information about her husband’s allies, business partners or relatives, the Times reports.

Reuters could not immediately confirm the report. A spokesman for the US Department of Justice declined to comment, and the Drug Enforcement Administration had no immediate comment. Lawyers for Coronel did not respond to requests for comment.

Coronel, a 31-year-old former beauty queen, was arrested at Washington’s Dulles International Airport in February.

Prosecutors accused her of working with her husband in running the drug cartel and conspiring in his infamous July 2015 escape from Mexico’s Altiplano prison through a mile-long tunnel dug from his cell.