I made my husband come out of a 1.6 km tunnel … The two faces of the ‘Wife of the Drug King’ [영상]

In 2019, when 64-year-old Joaquin Gusman, the world’s largest drug trafficker, was tried in New York, USA, there was another person who received media attention. It was Emma Coronel Icefuro, 32, a young wife, 32 years younger.

Several cameras followed him, who calmly puts her husband with striking beauty. At the time, she said she was just a married ‘normal woman’ without knowing what business she was doing.

However, Coronel is arrested at Washington Dulles International Airport on the 22nd (local time) and draws attention again. The charges applied surprised the world. The truth is that he, posing as a ‘gracious hostess’, was deeply involved in various drug deals, and led the planning of her husband’s jailbreak in 2015.

Known by the nickname El Chapo, Gusman is famous for having been in a dramatic manhunt of three arrests and two escapes in 32 years after being indicted by the US prosecutors. It is a story that there was a “two-faced” Colonel in the process.

Joaquin Gooseman’s wife, Emma Coronel Icefuro. [로이터=연합뉴스]

Colonel, who attended Washington federal district court on the 23rd, was still calm. To the judge’s question, “Can you understand me well?” “I understand everything well. Thank you, ”he replied politely. It was exactly what he saw in reporters while attending court as a witness at the time of Gusman’s trial in 2019.

But that day, prosecutor Anthony Nardoch “Corronel was deeply involved in the cartel’s command and control structure,” he said. “It also helped in the process of bringing drugs like cocaine, methamphetamine, and methamphetamine into the United States.”Saying. The United States Department of Justice also charged Coronel with conspiracy when Gusman escaped from Mexican prison in 2015.

Local US media said: “If all charges are admitted, we will spend at least 10 years in jail.” The case was “last October Salvador Cienfuegos, former Mexican Defense Minister, in charge of protecting the drug cartels.” It is the largest case in which the United States arrested a Mexican accused of drugs after being arrested. ”

The story of Mexican drug lord El Chapo was also produced as a Netflix drama. Netflix Capture

How the hell did Coronel get to the top of a drug dealer’s husband? Before getting married, she was a model for a local beauty pageant in rural Mexico. Then in 2007, when she was 18, she married Gusman, who ran the Sinaloa Cartel, and her life changed. Coronel’s father and uncle are said to have been active in the Sinaloa Cartel. That’s why Colonel met Gusman. Gusman, 49 at the time, was married for the third time.

Later, Gusman became the world’s largest drug supplier, succeeding Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, who died after a shootout with police. Coronel also gives birth to twin daughters and becomes the poster’s host. Gooseman’s drug business flourished by the day, and it was once said that 65% of drugs in America passed through his hands. From 1989 to 2014, Gusman trafficked more than 200 tons of drugs in the United States and rose to the rank of ‘Criminal King’ for money laundering, teacher murder and possession of illegal weapons. At the time, there was also a testimony that three planes flew in one day to pay for drugs.

But Colonel told the New York Times “(At the time of marriage) I had no idea that my husband was a king of drugs,” she said. “I loved him like a human being.”He insisted.

The appearance of El Chapo’s arrest in 2014. The United States federal prosecutor’s office estimates that Gusman, nicknamed ‘El Chapo’, which means ‘poisonous’, has accumulated a total of $ 12.6.66181704 (about 14.67 billion won) through drug transactions over the past 30 years. [AP=연합뉴스]

Colonel also used the media well. When Gooseman was repatriated to the United States in 2019 and the trial proceeded, he asked for sympathy and said: “El Chapo is a compassionate person.” At the time, Gusman was arrested in January 2016 after becoming involved with the Mexican Navy in a hidden house while promoting a film production six months after his second escape. Later, he was transferred to the United States for security reasons. At the time of the trial, Coronel went to court every day for interviews. “The media exaggerated it to make him famous,” he said. “In fact, he is a humble person.”He insisted.

The appearance of a wife who visits the courtroom every day to save her husband, the drug lord, quickly caught the attention of the media, and in the meantime, even Coronel’s clothing became a hot topic. Colonel did not miss this opportunity. That year, he launched a fashion brand named after Gusman’s nickname, El Chapo. She also appears on a reality show in the United States and uses her husband’s trial as an opportunity to learn more.

A tunnel used to exit El Chapo. The underground tunnel under the prison shower was connected to an abandoned building in a meadow 1.6 km away. [AFP=뉴스1]

But in 2019, El Chapo was finally sentenced to life in prison. The additional amount of the collection alone exceeded 14 trillion won. He was also incarcerated in the ADX federal prison in Florence, Colorado, which is said to be the safest in the United States.

Then the Colonel’s mask also starts to come off. Turns out, it was Coronel who led her husband’s second jailbreak in 2015. At that time, Coronel bought the land around the prison and implemented a bold plan to dig a 1.6 km long tunnel to the prison shower. He was so meticulous that I secretly brought a GPS watch (GPS) to the prison to verify my husband’s location.

The US Department of Justice also said: “Coronel believes that El Chapo had a plan to remove him even after he was arrested again in Mexico in January 2016.” The New York Times (NYT) said: “There was evidence that Coronel helped her husband transport drugs in 2012-2014, including cell phone records and witness testimony.”

In 2019, three vehicles on the highway between Chihuahua and Sonora in northern Mexico were indiscriminately shot, killing nine American families in the car. Authorities presumed that the drug cartel was mistaken for the vehicle of a rival organization and was fired. [AFP=연합뉴스]

Meanwhile, there is said to be a conflict between the United States and Mexico behind Coronel’s arrest.

In the past, when El Chapo was tried in New York, Coronel appeared in court almost every time, but the US police never tried to arrest him. This time, before the arrest of the United States, former Secretary of State Cienfuegos was arrested in the United States on charges of participating in a drug-related crime. The conflict between the two countries at the time, when the Mexican side was not notified, ultimately led to the arrest of Coronel. Subsequently, the Mexican parliament last December approved a bill that restricts the activities of agents of foreign agencies.

The British Daily Guardian said: “It would have affected Coronel’s arrest when the Mexican Parliament passed a bill restricting the activities of foreign agents such as agents of the United States Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) in his country, despite the opposition from the US government. ” Analyzed.

Colonel is currently in custody in Alexandria, Virginia, and his trial has not yet been scheduled. Coronel’s attorneys plan to go ahead with the bond requests.

Reporter Kim Hong-beom kim.hongbum @ joongang.co, kr