El Chapo's Wife Has a Net Worth in the Billions, but It Won't Help Her in Prison

El Chapo’s wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, once said she would follow her husband anywhere. It appears she stayed true to her word. In November 2021, Coronel was sentenced to serve a lengthy prison term, though it isn't quite as long as the sentence her husband received.

El Chapo, known as one of the biggest drug traffickers in the world, is currently serving a life sentence in a prison in Colorado — and neither his fortune nor Coronel's net worth can help them at this point.

Here's a look at how much El Chapo's wife's net worth is estimated to be — plus details on her prison sentence.

Coronel, 33, was sentenced on Nov. 30, 2021, to three years in prison for helping her husband, Joaquin Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, smuggle drugs into the U.S. and escape from prison, The New York Times reports.

Loera is the Mexican drug kingpin known as “El Chapo,” who led the notorious and violent Sinaloa drug cartel for years. In 2019, El Chapo was convicted and sentenced to life in prison for crimes that included narcotics trafficking, money laundering, and murder conspiracy.

According to court documents, Coronel conspired with El Chapo and the Sinaloa Cartel to traffic cocaine, heroin, methamphetamines, and marijuana for distribution in the U.S and laundered the proceeds of that drug trafficking.

Coronel’s conviction is also for the “critical role” she played in helping El Chapo in his 2015 escape from a Mexican prison through a tunnel. Coronel purchased property near the prison where the tunnel from El Chapo’s cell would lead and even gave him a watch with a GPS tracking device to monitor his movements. While El Chapo was detained, Coronel also relayed messages between him and other cartel members, court documents state.

As part of her conviction, the court ordered Coronel to turn over almost $1.5 million in proceeds she obtained through the drug trafficking operations.

Throughout El Chapo’s arrest, trial, and conviction, Coronel stood by him. After the verdict of conviction was read, she “flashed him a thumbs up with tears in her eyes,” The New York Times reported in 2019.

"I will follow to wherever he is," Coronel said in a 2016 interview on Telemundo. “I am in love with him. He is the father of my children."

After she was arrested in February, Coronel pleaded guilty in June to helping her husband in his drug operation and playing a role in his 2015 escape from a Mexican prison.

Coronel’s conviction is quite a fall from grace for a former beauty queen who married El Chapo on her 18th birthday in 2007.

A dual citizen of the U.S. and Mexico, Coronel was born near San Francisco but grew up in a remote Mexican village. Her father, Ines Coronel Barreras, was a member of the Sinaloa Cartel and one of El Chapo’s top lieutenants. He is currently serving a 10-year sentence for drug trafficking and illegal possession of firearms.

Coronel met El Chapo in 2006 at a party. He was 53 at the time and had been married three times. Coronel and El Chapo have twin daughters.

"I would say what won me over was his way of talking, how he treated me, the way we began to get along — first as friends, and from that came everything else," Coronel told Telemundo in 2016. "He tends to win over people by his manner of being, of acting, the way he treats people in general."