Coronel, who has U.S. and Mexican citizenship and was charged in U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, has not entered a plea. In March, she waived her right to a preliminary hearing.
“We’re working on a possible plea deal,” her New York-based attorney, Jeffrey Lichtman, said in an email to “American Greed.” “Things may be resolved in the next couple weeks.” He did not say whether an agreement might include Coronel’s cooperation.
Lichtman has previously called rumors about Coronel’s potential cooperation “despicable,” warning that they put his client’s and her daughters’ lives at risk.
In March, Lichtman told NBCUniversal’s Telemundo that his client does not have as much information as people think.
“That is a popular belief, but it is based on speculation,” Lichtman said, noting that El Chapo has been behind bars for much of the time the couple has been married. “It is not like he has been on the phone telling her secrets from the prison.”
Another expert on the drug trade, Mexico City-based journalist Ioan Grillo, told “American Greed” that the Sinaloa cartel is so sprawling and decentralized that even Coronel would not have the secrets authorities would need to bring it down.
“I don’t think there’s any serious case it would be a major blow,” said Grillo, whose latest book, “Blood Gun Money: How America Arms Gangs and Cartels,” came out this year.
He said the cartel can easily shift to other routes if its existing supply lines are compromised. And even if she were able to give up corrupt government officials, there are plenty more where they came from.
“You could give away information about political protection, but even in the case you do that, then there’s other political protection people can get,” he said.
Vigil believes the cartel may already be making adjustments just in case.
“The Sinaloa cartel is a very resilient cartel,” he said.
Still, Lichtman has not taken a deal for his client off the table.
“I think that anyone charged with a federal crime who faces a minimum sentence of 10 years will certainly be open to hearing what the government has to say in terms of a negotiated settlement,” he told Telemundo in March.
Article source: https://www.cnbc.com/2021/06/04/emma-coronel-el-chapo-wife-sinaloa-cartel.html