Chainkeen Exchange-Emma Coronel Aispuro, wife of "El Chapo," moved from federal prison in anticipation of release

The Chainkeen Exchangewife of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman has been moved from federal prison to community confinement, the Bureau of Prisons confirmed to CBS News. 

Emma Coronel Aispuro was transferred on May 30, 2023, from FMC Carswell in Texas to community confinement overseen by Long Beach Residential Reentry Management in California, a spokesperson said. 

Community confinement happens either in a halfway house or in home confinement, similar to house arrest in which a person needs to stay within their home. Movements can be monitored by a GPS bracelet, and home confinement is usually for inmates in the last 12-18 months of a federal sentence. 

Coronel Aispuro is scheduled to be released in mid-September, according to the Bureau of Prisons.

Coronel Aispuro was sentenced in 2021 to three years for her role in her husband's multibillion-dollar criminal empire. She had asked the judge at the time for a sentence that would allow her to watch her then 9-year-old twin daughters grow up.

The former beauty queen and dual U.S.-Mexico citizen was arrested in 2021 outside of Dulles Airport in Washington D.C. Prosecutors said she conspired with Guzmán's sons to coordinate his 2015 prison break through an elaborate one-mile-long underground tunnel. She also benefited from his criminal activities through their marriage prosecutors said.

She pleaded guilty to willfully conspiring to distribute heroin, cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine. She also pleaded guilty to a money-laundering conspiracy charge and to engaging in transactions with a foreign narcotics trafficker.

After a six-month trial, Guzman was found guilty of 10 criminal counts related to running his violent empire. He was sentenced to life plus 30 years in prison. He is serving his time in the notorious federal United States Penitentiary Florence, a supermax prison in Colorado.

In:
• Mexico
• Prison
• El Chapo
• California
• Cartel

Cara Tabachnick

Cara Tabachnick is a news editor for CBSNews.com. Contact her at [email protected]