The wife of reputed drug cartel boss Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman was reportedly caught with a cell phone inside Brooklyn federal court during her husband’s much-publicized trial.
Emma Coronel Aispuro, the Mexican-American former beauty queen, was accused Monday of having her mobile device in the courtroom just before a secret cooperating witness was set to take the stand at the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York.
Prosecutors trying El Chapo asked that she once again go through security after they claimed there was ‘footage of her having a cellphone in court, which she’s not supposed to have,’ according to Judge Brian Cogan.
Emma Coronel Aispuro (seen outside Brooklyn Federal Court on Monday) was accused of having her mobile device in the courtroom just before a secret cooperating witness was set to take the stand against her husband
Cogan then dismissed the jurors for lunch, according to the New York Post.
It is not clear if Aispuro did indeed have her cell phone, as prosecutors allege. Everyone attending the trial, including the press and public, must check in their devices at security.
Security is ultra-tight at the trial, where the government has taken great pains to hide the identities of key witnesses who may be risking their lives by testifying against Guzman.
The judge has even given special instructions to the court sketch artist, who is not allowed to draw specific features of a government witness, according to the Post.
Aispuro, 29, has been married to El Chapo since 2007. They have twin daughters.
Aispuro, 29, has been married to Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman since 2007. They have twin daughters. El Chapo, the longtime head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, has 11 other children. He is seen above during his arrest by Mexican authorities in January 2016
El Chapo, the longtime head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, has 11 other children.
Aispuro first caught El Chapo’s eye when she competed in a beauty pageant in 2006. She is a niece of a former partner of El Chapo’s, Ignacio ‘Nacho’ Coronel.
Coronel was shot dead during a raid by the Mexican military in July 2010, according to the Los Angeles Times.
Last week, Mexico’s former top security chief denied that he ever received bribes from anyone or connected to El Chapo.
Former cartel member Jesus Zambada testified last Tuesday that in the mid-2000s he gave $6million in drug money to the security chief, Genero Garcia Luna.
According to a letter published in Mexican media, Garcia Luna said, ‘I repeat that it is false, defamatory and perjury to say that I have ever received any material goods from any person, police officer or criminal group.’
Zambada also claimed that more million-dollar payments were made to Gabriel Regino, who worked in the administration of Mexican President-elect Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador’s administration when Lopez Obrador was mayor of Mexico City.
Regino denied the allegations on Twitter.
El Chapo faces up to 17 charges laid out in six separate indictments filed by authorities in California, Texas, Illinois, Florida and New Hampshire, according to CNN.
He stands accused of conspiring to import more than 264,000 pounds of cocaine into the United States between 1990 and 2005.
The Sinoloa cartel is also alleged to engage in murder, extortion, money laundering, drug trafficking, and other crimes.