Notorious drug lord El Chapo smiles at his beauty queen wife Emma Coronel Aispuro in court and complains he’s not allowed marital visits in jail
THE glamorous ex-beauty queen wife of drug cartel kingpin 'El Chapo' was reunited with her husband today after being told she couldn't see him in prison over fears he would try and escape once again.
The wealthy and powerful gang boss - real name Joaquin Guzman - is accused of running one of the world's biggest drug empires, saw his wife Emma Coronel in a New York court after being denied marital visits behind bars.
Guzman, who escaped twice from prison in Mexico, has been held in solitary confinement in New York since being extradited to the United States on January 19.
Guzman heads the Sinaloa cartel which is behind much of the deadly violence in Mexico’s decades-long drug war and smuggles tonnes of narcotics to the United States.
Coronel, a 27-year-old former beauty queen and mother of Guzman's twins, attended his second court hearing in Brooklyn.
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Guzman's public defenders asked Judge Brian Cogan permission for Coronel to visit her husband at the Metropolitan Correctional Center, but Cogan declined to intervene, saying it was up to the jail which has already denied it.
In October Coronel filed a complaint with the National Human Rights Commission that her hubby, who was being held in isolation, might die or “go crazy.”
She also said authorities have gone too far by cutting Guzman’s weekly lovemaking time with her from four hours to two.
"It's an unusual case," Cogan noted. "Obviously they are taking extra security measures. We know the reasons for that," he added.
WHO IS EMMA CORONEL?
Beauty Emma Coronel Aispuro is no stranger to the world of Mexican organised crime.
Her rancher father, Ines Coronel Barreras, is said to have cultivated marijuana and opium poppies and her uncle is slain drug kingpin Igancio ‘Nacho’ Coronel, who was an important member of the Sinaloa Cartel and one of El Chapo’s most trusted men.
El Chapo is said to have fallen in love with Emma Coronel when he saw her at a beauty pageant in the Mexican state of Durango in 2007.
She was competing in the local Coffee and Guava Festival in 2007, when she was just 17 and El Chapo exerted his influence to ensure the girl won. El Chapo, 47 at the time, wooed the young Coronel, who eventually married him on her 18th birthday.
US authorities are determined that Guzman will have no opportunity to stage another daring escape after twice fleeing Mexican prisons, once in a laundry cart and most recently riding a motorbike through a tunnel under his shower.
The 59-year-old defendant, dressed in navy short-sleeved prison scrubs, was calm and expressionless for the 40-minute hearing, which he followed through a Spanish language interpreter sitting next to him.
He pleaded not guilty to a raft of firearms, drug trafficking and conspiracy charges at an initial court hearing on January 20.
Friday's hearing was conducted under stringent security measures, with armed guards dressed in bullet-proof vests at the court door and attendees required to pass through two security checkpoints before entering the room.
His lawyers say he has been unable to make telephone calls or communicate directly with his family or lawyers in Mexico, locked in a cell 23 hours a day with only one hour of solitary exercise at the Manhattan jail.
His personal appearance was a small victory after prosecutors recommended that he appear by video link to keep down costs and minimise disruption caused by transporting him on the two-mile trip.
The judge set the next hearing in May.
If he stands trial and is convicted, Guzman could spend the rest of his life in a maximum security US prison. Prosecutors are also seeking to obtain a $14 billion criminal forfeiture order against him.