Emma Coronel Aispuro, wife of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, has been arrested at the Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia over her alleged involvement in international drug trafficking and aiding in planning Guzmán’s escape from prison in 2015. She is expected to appear in a federal court in Washington DC on Tuesday.

According to a statement from the United States Department of Justice, Coronel Aispuro is accused of participating in a conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin and marijuana into the United States. She is also accused of conspiring with others to assist Guzmán in his escape from the Altiplano prison on July 11, 2015, and against after Guzmán was arrested in January 2016. In 2019, Guzmán was sentenced to life in prison plus thirty years.

During Guzman’s 2019 trial in New York, Dámaso López, known as “El Licenciado,” and Guzman’s former right-hand man, confessed that Coronel Aispuro and three of Guzman’s children coordinated his 2015 prison escape from Altiplano prison. Dámaso López testified that a GPS watch was smuggled into the prison to acquire the exact location the kingpin was detained in. Dámaso López also added that after Guzman’s capture in 2016, Coronel Aispuro helped coordinate another escape, adding that she paid the then-director of the prison USD 2 million to transfer the kingpin back to Altiplano from Ciudad Juarez. Guzman instead was extradited to the US.

Coronel Aispuro is the daughter of Inés Coronel Barreras, known as “El Uno” and “El Suegro,” a former medium-ranking lieutenant of the Cartel de Sinaloa (CDS). He was arrested in 2013 by Mexico’s now-defunct Federal Police. In 2014, rumors erupted that he had escaped prison, though the government denied it. Coronel Barreras is also related to Ignacio “Nacho” Coronel Villarreal, another high ranking former CDS chief, who was close to Amado Carrillo Fuentes “the Lord of The Skies” until Carrillo Fuentes’ death.

Coronel Aispuro is a dual Mexican-American citizen who was born near San Francisco, California, in 1989. She is Guzman’s third partner. They have two daughters together.