El Chapo’s beauty queen wife ‘investigated for conspiracy’ in drug lord’s escape

Drug kingpin's long time associate testified that Emma Coronel Aispuro helped her husband escape from prison

Drug kingpin “El Chapo” Guzman's wife could reportedly face charges for her alleged role in the drug lord’s 2015 escape from a Mexican prison.

Emma Coronel Aispuro regularly appeared at her husband’s high-profile trial in New York earlier this year, but appeared to have no role in his criminal enterprise - until one of her husband's former associates took to the witness stand.

El Chapo’s longtime former lieutenant Damaso Lopez Nunez claimed in court Ms Coronel Aispuro served as a liaison between her husband and his organisation while he was being held in a Mexican prison.

He said the 29-year-old transferred messages to El Chapo’s workers who built the infamous, mile-long passageway underneath the prison bathroom which he ultimately escaped through.

“She’s being investigated for conspiracy in this country,” an anonymous federal law enforcement official told the New York Post which was the first to report on Ms Coronel Aispuro’s possible conspiracy charges.

The former beauty queen has since spearheaded efforts to launch a clothing brand in her husband’s name. El Chapo signed a contract earlier this year from federal prison to use his name with the label.

“I am very excited and hope I can create things that everyone likes,” Ms Coronel Aispuro wrote in an Instagram post.

The judge presiding over El Chapo’s three-month federal trial denied his requests to hug his wife during proceedings, according reports at the time, citing the government’s “restriction that prohibits defendant from communicating with or having any physical contact with his wife.”

Judge Brian Cogan noted the effort was done in order to stop the drug lord “from coordinating any escape from prison or directing any attack on individuals who might be cooperating with the government.”