Emma Coronel Aispuro was arrested in Virginia on Monday.- Coronel is accused of helping her husband, the drug lord known as
El Chapo , run his empire. - Her pursuit of fame may have made her a target for US authorities, the AP reported.
Emma Coronel Aispuro was arrested at Dulles
The wife of Mexico's most notorious drug lord, Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera, is charged with conspiring to distribute drugs for importing into the US, the US Department of Justice said.
Coronel is also alleged to have conspired to help her husband escape a Mexican prison in 2015.
Experts have said the former beauty queen might have become a target for arrest because of the media attention she garnered in recent years, according to the Associated Press.
'This breaks a tradition of secrecy'
"Emma had remained anonymous like practically all partners of Sinaloa cartel capos," the executive editor of Sinaloa's Noroeste newspaper, Adrian Lopez, told the AP. But then, he added, she began taking on "more of a celebrity attitude" that he said broke "a tradition of secrecy and a style specifically within the leadership of the Sinaloa cartel."
Coronel, a dual US-Mexican citizen, married Guzmán in 2007. For almost a decade after that, Coronel largely maintained a low profile.
This all changed in 2018 at her husband's trial in a court in Brooklyn, New York, for masterminding a multibillion-dollar drug operation.
Before the trial, Coronel gave an interview in which she said she was concerned for Guzmán's health and hadn't spoken with her husband in 15 months.
She was a regular presence at the trial, attracting media attention. She defended her husband even as prosecutors shared numerous instances of his infidelity, Reuters reported.
At the time of the high-profile trial, Coronel also became an unsuspecting style icon.
Her fashion choices and designer outfits elevated to her a level of celebrity.
On one occasion, Coronel made the headlines after both she and her husband wore burgundy velvet smoking jackets in court.
Coronel appeared on a reality-TV show
Guzmán was convicted and sentenced to life behind bars in 2019.
Just months later, Coronel began to profit from her newfound fame by launching a fashion line.
"I have a project for a line of clothing," Coronel wrote on a now-deleted Instagram post. "It is my goal to promote my style and Joaquin's."
The clothing line is called El Chapo and bears the convicted drug lord's signature.
The 31-year-old also appeared on a reality-TV show. "It's sad that they judge us without knowing us," she said while appearing on the debut episode of VH1's "Cartel Crew."
Coronel has, in recent months, used an Instagram account to post photographs of herself. Despite publishing only five photos, she has more than 600,000 followers on her verified account.
'She could become a target'
According to the Mexican investigative journalist Anabel Hernández, who has interviewed Coronel, the former beauty queen may have sought fame to make her imprisoned husband jealous.
She was said to be "very, very mad and very hurt" by the details of Guzmán's infidelity, which became public knowledge during his trial, Hernández told the AP.
Consequently, Hernández suggested, Coronel "decided to take revenge, and the way to get her revenge was to make her husband see what he was losing."
Her newfound fame, however, reportedly concerned those close to her.
Hernández spoke with the 31-year-old's mother, who was concerned the attention could make her daughter a target, the AP reported.
"Her mother was also worried that an enemy cartel could harm Emma because she was unleashed, was out in the street a lot, the clubs, excessive in her social life," the journalist told the AP.
Hernández also told the AP that she suspected the US authorities recognized Coronel's new glamorous lifestyle was an attempt to betray her husband. Identifying an opportunity to pressure her into betrayal, Hernández said, they moved to arrest her.
Prison
Coronel is accused of helping El Chapo run his drug empire and conspiring to coordinate his successful escape from prison.
She is being held temporarily at a jail in Alexandria, Virginia.
At Tuesday's hearing, Judge Robin Meriweather said she would remain in jail pending a bail hearing.
If convicted on all charges, Coronel faces up to life in prison and a fine of up to $10 million.
According to the New York Post, she could be poised to turn informer and be a candidate for the witness-protection program.
"She's definitely cooperating," a federal law-enforcement source told The Post.
"Emma wants to get far away from the violence and has always wanted to live in the US," the source said.