She’s not laughing now.
A somber mugshot of the beauty-queen wife of notorious Mexican narcotics kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo’’ Guzman was released Tuesday — as she was ordered held without bail on drug-trafficking charges.
Emma Coronel Aispuro — who famously cackled in Brooklyn federal court in 2019 as her hubby’s mistress sobbed on the stand at his trial — appeared virtually at her federal-court hearing in Washington, DC.
The 31-year-old had been arrested at Dulles International Airport in northern Virginia a day earlier — on charges that could put her in prison for life.
She remained mum as a prosecutor described her as one of her husband’s right-hand cohorts in his multibillion-dollar criminal empire.
Coronel only spoke when asked by the judge if she understood what was being said.
“I understood everything very well, thank you,” she said through a Spanish translator.
She is accused of acting as a go-between for her 63-year-old husband, nicknamed “Shorty,’’ and his cronies while he hid from authorities over the years.
Coronel also allegedly helped plan his elaborate escape from a Mexican prison through an underground tunnel in 2015 — including discussing the need to smuggle a GPS-enabled watch to him behind bars to direct them to exactly where his cell was.
The escape plot worked, although Guzman was recaptured in 2016.
He was eventually hauled to the US, and convicted on a slew of drug-trafficking raps in Brooklyn federal court in 2019 and is currently serving a life sentence in Colorado.
At the blockbuster trial, his wife frequently grabbed the spotlight over her designer outfits — and flamboyant antics.
The day after one of her hubby’s mistresses testified through tears and Coronel laughed out loud in the courtroom, the wife arranged for she and Guzman wear matching wine-colored velvet blazers — a sign of their devotion to each other.
Coronel — whose nickname “La Reinita’’ means “Little Queen” — is the daughter of one of her husband’s former lieutenants.
She is a US citizen — since she was born just outside San Francisco while her mom was visiting family there.
Coronel met Guzman at a local dance when she was just 17.
The ruthless drug kingpin and his loyal wife married in 2007, on her 18th birthday — shortly after he helped secure her crown as the local Coffee and Guava Queen in Sinaloa. The couple has young twin daughters together.
She appeared on the VH1 reality-TV show “Cartel Crew” in 2019.
Additional reporting by Tamar Lapin
This article was originally posted here