The wife of jailed drug lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán will not cooperate with the US government in exchange for a lighter sentence because she fears for the safety of their twin 10-year-old daughters, her lawyer said.
Emma Coronel instead will apply for the safety valve exemption, which requires her to follow a set of guidelines. She could spend between 5 and 7 years in prison.
‘She has (her two) girls in Mexico and it is very well known what happens to cooperators or to the family of collaborators,’ said criminal attorney Mariel Colón in an interview with Univision. Why expose her, put at risk her life and her family’s safety when another source can assist her, and permit her to flee in the exact same manner as she would had she cooperated?
Colón added that Coronel is allowed to leave her jail cell for four hours a day and has not seen her twin daughters because of COVID-19 restrictions that prohibit inmates from receiving visitors.
She has been detained in federal custody for 31 years since she was arrested at Dulles International Airport, Virginia in February. June 10th, she pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiring to aid El Chapo’s Sinaloa Cartel drug trafficking operation that is worth billions.
Emma Coronel, the wife of Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, with lawyer Mariel Colón leave a federal courthouse in Brooklyn after attending El Chapo’s trial hearing on January 31, 2019. In a recent interview with Univision, Colón said Coronel will not cooperate with the federal government while she awaits to be sentenced November 30. Coronel was arrested in February at Dulles International Airport in Virginia and in June pleaded guilty to conspiring to help El Chapo operate Sinaloa Cartel
Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán co-founded the Sinaloa Cartel, which under his watch made billons of dollars trafficking drugs across the world. In the United States, he is currently serving a sentence of life imprisonment
Coronel, who waived the right to a jury trial, admitted that she conspired to distribute heroin, methamphetamine, and cocaine.
A money laundering conspiracy conviction and an agreement to transact with a foreign drug dealer were also filed.
Coronel initially was expected to be sentenced September 15, but it was postponed until November 30 so that her team of lawyers led by Jeffrey Lichtman and Colón, who also represented El Chapo, could weigh their options.
Emma Coronel, who was born in the United States, married Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán at the age of 18
Inés Coronel, whose daughter Emma Coronel is married to Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán, in serving a 10 years and five months sentenced in Mexico for illegal possession of firearms and smuggling drugs to the Unites States. He was 53 years old and a leader of El Chapo’s Sinaloa Cartel.
Coronel’s attorneys will try to have her sentenced using the safety valve. This allows the judge to impose a sentence well below the minimum term, instead of El Chapo testifying.
Colón argued that Coronel will meet the exception’s five criteria because she is pleading guilty to her first criminal offense.
Coronel’s defense believes she can demonstrate that she wasn’t the “leader, organizer, supervisor in the commission” of the offense and that she used no violence to accomplish this.
Additionally, Coronel knows that safety valves require defendants to inform the government about any offenses and related misconduct before they are sentenced.
‘If she obviously qualifies for that (safety valve) that is determined by the judge the day he (announces the sentence), they could then give you one more reduction, not to say the mandatory minimum, but a lower sentence,’ Colón said.
Coronel wouldn’t need to qualify for witness protection under the safety valve if she wanted to rebel against the cartel.
Emma Coronel, according to her lawyer, is allowed to leave her jail cell for four hours a day and has not seen her twin daughters because of COVID-19 restrictions that prohibit inmates from receiving visitors
Mexican news magazine Proceso reported in August that it had obtained information from sources with U.S. Department of Justice who claim that Coronel was ready to furnish details linking El Chapo’s sons – Joaquín Guzmán López, Ovidio Guzmán López, Ivan Archivaldo Guzmán Salazar and Jesús Alfredo Guzmán Salazar, otherwise know as ‘Los Chapitos – to the Sinaloa Carte.
Proceso reports that the Department of Justice stated it “would expect information” from her about the mode of operation of her husband’s children now in charge of the fraction of cartel her father managed.
Coronel could be sent to prison for five years, and he would then be allowed custody of his twin girls. He will also get the United States Federal Witness Protection Program.
‘She does not need to (go into witness protection,’ Colón said. She has completed her sentence. American citizens are hers. After that, she is allowed to stay in the United States. It is possible to get in to a witness protection programme without having to completely change your life or your identity.