Wife of 'El Chapo' faces international drug trafficking charges, federal authorities say - CNN

According to a criminal complaint, "there is probable cause to believe that, from at least in or about 2014 and at least on or about January 19, 2017, Coronel did knowingly, intentionally, and willfully conspired with Guzmán and others" to distribute drugs.

The complaint says the FBI believes she took messages from Guzmán to his lieutenants, associates and four sons before and while El Chapo was in a Mexican prison.

Coronel, a dual citizen of the US and Mexico, is expected to make her initial appearance Tuesday in US District Court in Washington, DC, via video conference.

Prosecutors said Coronel conspired with others to assist her husband in his July 11, 2015, escape from a prison in Mexico.

After Guzmán was rearrested in Mexico in January 2016, his wife is alleged to have engaged in planning yet another prison escape before he was extradited to the United States in January 2017, officials said.

Guzmán -- who prosecutors said headed a global narcotics empire greased for decades with corruption and violence -- was convicted after a jury trial in 2019, and sentenced to life plus 30 years in federal prison.

Security surrounding Guzmán's trial was so tight that the Brooklyn Bridge was shut down each week to allow Guzmán to be transferred in a motorcade -- complete with a helicopter escort -- from a federal detention center to the courthouse in Brooklyn for his months-long trial.