Original subtitles

Joaqu�n "El Chapo" Guzm�n.

Public Enemy Number One.

Head of the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel.

The largest drug trafficking organization in the world.

El Chapo became almost

mythological when he escapes through a tunnel.

Guzm�n was last seen on a security camera

entering a shower area, slipped into a hole,

into an elaborate tunnel.

He becomes the GOAT of prison escapes.

['EL CHAPO ESCAPES']

I mean, you can't make things like that up!

It's something that would be like written for the movies.

[flash bang]

They had to put out a manhunt for him.

[gunshots]

[screaming]

[in Spanish] Arriba! Arriba!

And El Chapo was arrested.

Finally back in custody, after 13 years on the run.

And he is very quickly extradited to the US.

The narco-trafficker Trial of the Century.

- Make way! - Make way! Let's go!

One constant fixture in the courtroom

has been Guzm�n's wife of more than 10 years.

- Former beauty queen. - Beauty queen.

Former beauty queen Emma Coronel.

There's an idea in daily journalism of the "get,"

the best thing you could possibly have

on the story, and that was her.

All our editors were like, "Get her!"

People wanted to know how this young lady was married to this

man who was significantly older.

18 and 50, people thought that was just gross.

There was a cloud of suspicion around her.

She herself is just one small step removed from bloodshed.

Witness testimonies portray him as a killer.

Authorities attribute 10,000 murders to El Chapo's gang.

You can't make this glamorous life on the souls of the people

that have been tortured and killed,

and not expect to have to answer to it.

There's this sense at any moment,

that she could be implicated.

And in fact, we know that later she was.

"The wife of the world's most notorious drug lord,

arrested Monday."

That was an interesting mind shift,

when people stopped looking just at Chapo

and started looking at her.

America wants to know, how do you feel, ma'am?

America wants to know how you feel?

There's so much she hasnt shared.

What she saw, and what she learned.

Who is this woman?

What exactly is her role, here?

Is she really kind of a mastermind?

Or, is she a victim of circumstances

beyond her control?

[tense music]

[in Spanish]

[exhales shakily]

[intriguing music]

[car horns blaring]

Opening statements in the case

against drug kingpin Joaqu�n "El Chapo" Guzm�n

are being held at the Federal Courthouse

in Brooklyn this morning.

Guzm�n is the head

of the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel.

The largest drug trafficking organization in the world.

I was working as a crime reporter,

and I got a call from my editor.

And he was like, "You speak Spanish, right?"

And I was like, "Yes."

And he's like, "Do you wanna cover El Chapo's trial?"

And I immediately said yes!

This is, you know the Trial of the Century.

I remember a lot of police,

waiting for a war or something.

A lot of journalists outside.

It's the New York press corps, the national press corps,

it's all the Spanish language press.

And they're all getting there

before dawn, lined up. [camera flashes]

I spent nights sleeping in a sleeping bag, waiting to get in.

There was this huge energy,

in part because of the fame and notoriety.

Federal authorities were terrified that he would somehow

escape, again!

But really, it was the Trial of the Century

because no capo had ever done this before.

Gone to trial and had everything splayed out.

El Chapo pleaded not guilty.

He's facing serious counts here,

including drug making, distribution,

running a criminal enterprise.

That he engaged in murder conspiracy.

Drug and gun charges.

And money laundering.

An avalanche of evidence.

56 witnesses.

Full of graphic testimony on how prosecutors say

the drug lord carried out his operation.

Involved in gruesome murders.

Known to personally torture and kill his enemies.

If Guzm�n is found guilty,

he will spend the rest of his life in a federal prison.

[background yelling]

Guys, back up! Come on, give her some space!

- Come on back! - Back up!

The more I watched Emma, while everybody else watched Chapo,

I became convinced she was a more interesting story.

Thank you. Good luck.

There was lots of debate among all of us about what exactly

is her role here?

We're analyzing literally any little tidbit.

Every reaction, every outfit.

[camera flashes]

We have to make notes, what she was wearing everyday.

And I did it in my case, against my will.

Yes, her outfits were great,

but there was more to her than that.

We would watch her during the proceedings,

for details that might somehow implicate her.

If there's a gruesome murder being discussed!

Each and every one of us in that courtroom was eagle-eyed

to try to see if there were tears in her eyes.

She was very stoic.

She didn't react.

She didn't move a nerve on her face.

That's when you find out that she's not normal people.

[mysterious music]

[in Spanish]

[tense music]

[exhales shakily]

Mm-hmm.

[laughing]

[spanish guitar music]

[camera flashes]

[tense music]

After the trial,

I wanted to see a different perspective.

So, I went to Mexico.

Emma wasn't there,

but I met up with her family.

I said, you know, "I've seen the trial,

now I want to see the other side."

And they said, "Okay."

[upbeat music]

When she was 17, Emma wanted to be a model,

and decided to run for this pageant.

[Mexican folk music]

In order to campaign for votes,

she would attend these local parties.

The parties leading up to the beauty pageant had a reputation,

a lot of narcos will come to,

you know, watch the young ladies, right?

These are teenage girls, and these are men,

some of them rather old men.

[in Spanish]

Emma meets Chapo

on the dancefloor.

Chapo, at which point is already a fugitive,

after this violent incident at the Guadalajara airport.

[tense music]

So in 1993, when Emma is three years old,

El Chapo is involved in a high profile shootout,

resulting in the death of the Cardinal of Mexico.

Chapo is arrested, he is put in high security prison

and that was the end of it.

Until his first escape, when she was 11 years old.

And from that moment on,

There was, you know, a bounty on his head,

and he became a famous narco.

He has this larger than life outlaw story.

Chapo Guzm�n actually invented the border tunnel.

Drug tunnels, carrying a river of drugs into the United States.

[camera flashes]

Everybody was looking for Chapo.

See, his face was on the TV, on the newspapers.

Chapo, Chapo, Chapo, Chapo, Chapo.

Nobody knows how many times they tried to catch him.

[helicopter whirring]

[in Spanish]

[chuckles]

[tender music] [helicopter whirring]

[Mexican folk music]

[tense music]

Chapo and Emma continued

their relationship.

The beauty pageant votes come in,

and she wins.

[in Spanish]

She is crowned

Reina de Festival in February,

and in July of that same year,

her 18th birthday, she's married to El Chapo.

[festive music]

[in Spanish]

[music falls flat]

When you have an 18 year old

married to one of the most

powerful drug dealers of all time,

you get about as little agency as possible.

You know, if you believe in "Me Too" at all...

18 and 50, that was the gross power dynamic

from an age perspective, from a power standpoint.

That's not a man you say no to.

[tense music]

[in Spanish]

[dramatic music]

The wedding makes headlines.

Local politicians are there, there's lots of interest,

so of course, Mexican authorities,

you know, descend on the town.

[in Spanish]

[banging on door]

[gentle guitar music]

The wedding makes headlines.

There's lots of interest, so of course,

Mexican authorities descend on the town,

looking for El Chapo.

[in Spanish]

[flying plane]

He was just ahead of the game.

I started with the DEA in 1987,

and by the early 90s,

one of our main targets was El Chapo Guzm�n.

By 2007, he'd already been indicted in the United States

for trafficking massive amounts of cocaine.

We always would work with Mexican authorities.

0600, yes.

The problem was back then,

corruption is such an integral part of how

the law enforcement worked.

We knew that people were tipping him off, saying,

"Don't go here, be sure to go there."

It was a cat-and-mouse game,

except the mouse had all the cards.

We first heard of Emma right about the time of the marriage.

A lot of us had daughters that were Emma's age,

and she's married Chapo,

the most wanted man probably in the Western Hemisphere,

if not the world.

I think as a parent, you kind of like get that stomach twist,

"Oh, that's not good!"

[tense music]

After they married, Emma moves to Culiac�n.

It's the capital of Sinaloa,

it's also the capital of cartel headquarters.

And during this time, El Chapo's mostly hiding off

in the mountains.

[in Spanish]

Even though they were both

in Mexico, it was a long-distance marriage.

So a lot of it happens over text,

and a lot of it is actually logistics.

[in Spanish]

[door closing]

[gentle music]

[insects chirping]

[panting]: Gaviota.

[dramtic music playing] Gaviota!

[man singing in Spanish]

[sizzling]

[gentle music]

[chuckles]

[tense music]

Around the time when

Emma was married to El Chapo,

you see this explosion of brutal, visceral violence

in Mexico's criminal landscape.

Joaqu�n "El Chapo" Guzm�n is currently at war

with the Ju�rez Cartel, with the Gulf Cartel,

and with Arturo Beltr�n Leyva.

Local newspapers almost daily have headlines

of the bloody violence of the drug cartels.

[in Spanish]

In the past few years,

Mexico has become one of the most dangerous places on earth.

[in Spanish]

[gunfire]

[somber music]

Narco-traffickers,

they are the reason for a lot of death in Mexico,

and in the US.

I believe they don't care about the people.

A normal people, they care about people. They don't.

Chapo was in charge of death squads,

that went to kill people who were loyal

to the other factions.

That kind of brutal violence upped the ante.

I'm sure viewers will remember

the tossing of heads onto a dance floor.

Bodies hanging off bridges around that time.

[eerie music]

That's the terror they bring. The innocent people mostly,

were in a constant state of fear or terror.

[sobbing]

People want to know what Emma witnessed, and what she learned

during her time with El Chapo.

[inhales deeply]

[in Spanish]

So, over the next few years,

Emma and Chapo continue this long-distance relationship,

while he keeps evading the authorities.

[in Spanish]

I think you see Emma take

agency only really a few times in her early story.

And one of those times is when she's pregnant

with her twin daughters.

[in Spanish]

[tense music]

[dramatic music]

We try to keep a bead

on everyone that was in his circle.

You did seem to be focused on Emma.

[suspenseful music]

We get word from a lookout that Emma and her family members

have come in to the United States.

We envision Chapo coming through one of the tunnels,

and coming up and visiting her and the twins

in the hospital.

And if we were thinking he was gonna show up and visit,

then one of the cartels he was at war with

might think he's gonna show up and visit.

And the last thing we wanted was another Guadalajara airport

massacre happening here in the United States.

[gunshots]

[dramatic music]

We envision Chapo coming through one of the tunnels,

and visiting her and the twins in the hospital.

Would he do it? I don't know. It's like playing the lottery,

you can't win unless you buy a ticket.

[in Spanish]

We didn't have probable cause

to arrest or detain them at the time,

and it's not illegal to be married to a drug lord.

But we set up surveillance around the hospital,

partially to catch Chapo,

partially as a security to make sure everything stayed safe.

[in Spanish]

[ECG machine beeping]

[gentle music]

It's a pretty intimidating

position to be in, I think, for her.

If rivals are trying to get to your husband,

and those rivals get hold of you instead,

it's very common for violence to be meted out

against the women of powerful narcos.

Rape is a part of that,

body mutilation is a part of that.

You know, to send a message to the powerful men

that they're associated with.

[in Spanish]

[tense music]

There's a lot of myth

that shrouds Emma's family.

We know much more about sort of her family

after El Chapo than before.

Her father, he was certainly trafficking drugs afterwards.

There's text exchanges that go to that,

that were brought into the court record at El Chapo's trial.

[in Spanish]

[somber music]

[gentle music]

At this point,

Emma's dealing with a lot.

With the arrest of her father and brother,

there is this sense that the Mexican authorities

are closing in.

There would of course been the fear

that she was going to also lose her husband.

And then, beyond all that,

also knowing that there had been other women.

He'd had wives before her, and never divorced them.

And there's also infidelity. [camera flashes]

Reams and reams of cheating.

He didn't do drugs, he didn't really drink,

but he ate Viagra like candy. He was addicted to women.

[in Spanish]

Chapo, he moved

from different hideouts in the mountains,

but the problem was, again, women,

when he went from the mountains to the cities to meet them.

Had he stayed in the mountains,

we would still be looking for him today.

[guitar music]

In 2014, Operation Gargoyle kicks off.

We're teamed up with CIMAR, the Mexican Marines.

One of the most highly trained, efficient Special Forces group

in the world.

The DEA on the ground there is the strongest

I've ever worked with.

It was kind of the perfect storm, everything

was coming together.

We get the information about Culiac�n,

that Chapo was in that area.

They find out from informants that Chapo has seven houses,

all connected by the tunnels in the sewer system.

And he hides in different houses.

[camera flashes]

And, as the team is clearing the various houses,

they find an RPG, several guns, tons of methamphetamine,

bunch of plastic bananas and stuff,

so he could hide cocaine in it.

And they found it, found the house that Chapo was at.

[suspenseful music]

[banging on door]

[breaking door down]

[in Spanish] �Arriba! �Arriba!

They're clearing the house.

[screaming]

And they don't find anyone inside.

But as they get in, they find an escape hatch,

underneath the bathtub.

As they're breaching the house, Chapo and his missus Cicero

went down the tunnel and took off through the sewers.

He slipped out of a bathroom trap door, down these stairs,

into these underground tunnels, as Mexican authorities

try to break down a steel door.

Four days had passed,

it was some people that thought, "Okay, he's gone."

But the Mexican Marines and the DEA keep the pursuit

and they keep monitoring all the communications.

And we find out that Chapo's in Mazatl�n.

[dramatic music]

El Chapo is in disguise,

and he's wheeled into the hotel Miramar in a wheelchair.

He's wearing sunglasses, and he's hunkered down

in the wheelchair. [elevator bell]

And they usher him up to the fourth floor.

[elevator bell]

[in Spanish]

[birds chirping]

[suspenseful music]

They get there,

they find a hotel.

They surround the Miramar.

They're pretty much convinced there's not a tunnel issue here,

because he's on the fourth floor.

[breaking glass]

[in Spanish]

[dramatic music]

[background yelling]

[in Spanish]

Chapo was captured

without a shot.

No one was hurt, that's the biggest victory you could have.

[in Spanish]

Joaqu�n "El Chapo" Guzm�n,

on the run for 13 years,

his arrest tonight being called

the biggest setback to the drug trade in three decades.

We were all really surprised that he hung around,

uh, he stayed in Mazatl�n.

It was just amazing to us that someone who was so

tactically smart would do something so tactically dumb.

Kind of gave breath to the theory that Emma

was truly his weakness.

If it was so important to see her,

that's what got him captured.

[distant indistinct chattering]

[in Spanish]

[laughs]

Emma was watching her family

drop off like flies.

All the most important men in her life, gone in a year's time.

And her power, at that time, was very much rooted

in her connections to these important men.

So, losing them was going to forever change her life.

[in Spanish]

[crowd chanting]

[in Spanish]

In certain parts

of Mexican society, you do have this hero worship

around El Chapo.

It's sort of like, "**** you"

to the government and the systems that keep people down.

If you go to cities like Culiac�n,

if you go to the markets, you can buy anything from like

caps and keyrings, and mugs and t-shirts,

to a miniature figurine of El Chapo with a AK-47.

El Chapo was born into grinding poverty,

and then made it onto Forbes rich list.

That, to a lot of people,

is the rags to riches story to aspire to.

El Chapo has cashed in on drug smuggling to the tune of

a billion dollars, according to Forbes Magazine.

He is uh, not available for interviews,

because he's on the run!

[in Spanish]

I mean, how could she not

have known about the money?

Yes, there was money.

I think she came to appreciate the lifestyle

of designer clothes and nice cars and all of that.

You can't make this life on the souls of the people

that have been tortured and killed by the Sinaloa Cartel,

and not expect to have to answer to it.

[in Spanish]

If you want to be like,

"When can we lay the blame?

When can we say this was her fault?"

Is she complicit in her husband's crimes?

At this point, Emma's in her 20s

and now this is the father of her children,

so, you know, what was she supposed to do?

Like, you can't leave that marriage.

[tense music]

I would imagine for a woman in her position,

it was very hard to say no

to helping advance El Chapo's business.

Especially, you know, when he was in prison.

El Chapo is taken to a high-security prison

called El Altiplano.

And it's one of the highest security prisons

in all of Mexico.

[camera clicking]

He has a cell to himself,

Emma has moved into a town nearby

and comes and visits often.

But her visits to him in Altiplano

would later have a huge impact.

On both his life and hers.

[in Spanish]

[indistinct TV chatter]

And in July of 2015,

El Chapo goes to his shower...

...and slips down a hole.

And this is all caught, y'know, on video camera.

[tense music]

Tonight, the top drug dealer in the world has done it again.

For the second time, he just staged

a spectacular escape.

[in Spanish]

I remember just being completely like, incredulous

that he would escape in such a fashion.

You just can't make things like that up.

[in Spanish]

[tense music]

[audio cuts]

[in Spanish]

She can't really talk about the escape

for fears of, you know, legal repercussions.

I mean, she's still on probation

and I don't think Emma wants to draw any more attention

to what her role might have played in El Chapo's escape.

Tonight, a frantic search continues for him

as we get a better sense of the complexity of the tunnel

through which he made his escape.

He becomes the GOAT of prisoner escapes.

This is worldwide publicity.

It's the second escape for the notorious drug kingpin.

El Chapo's escape raises serious questions

about potential corruption at that prison.

Everybody was laughing, saying,

"Come on! Chapo escaped again?"

Yep. He did.

Every aspect of this escape was very well thought out.

Figuring out how far away they needed to start the tunnel,

the land they would need to get so they had

full access to that area.

Guzman was last seen on a security camera

entering a shower area.

He slipped into a 20-by-20 inch hole,

down a ladder, into an elaborate tunnel

made of wood and PVC pipe.

And the tunnel itself is ventilated.

He has a motorbike,

he can just go the mile distance through the tunnel.

This is easy, this is set up, this is planned.

It's something that would be like, written for the movies.

[in Spanish]

At the time, I was covering news in Mexico

and the entire press corps was just like,

disbelieving and amused.

It had to be literally one of the most embarrassing things

for the Mexican government in probably decades.

For them to say, "Okay, now we have him.

Oops, he's gone."

[in Spanish]

He just goes right back to the life that he'd had

before he'd been incarcerated.

Today, pictures surfaced on social media

purporting to show Guzman after his escape.

It obviously went to his head.

And that actually kind of worked out in our advantage.

He becomes a little bit more,

almost flaunting that they can't get him.

He even invites Kate del Castillo and Sean Penn

to come visit him while he's in hiding.

To talk about making a movie about his life.

And there's all these photos of them together.

Him meeting with Sean Penn Miss del Castillo,

that was something Chapo would not have done years before.

And that eventually leads to Sean Penn's interview.

An article in Rolling Stone.

[in Spanish]

You don't invite famous people to come

hang out with you while you're in hiding

if you're, you know, really doing it well.

At that point, I think he just thought he was Teflon.

He just got very sloppy.

I was stunned that he would risk, uh, our trip,

I was stunned.

[crickets chirping]

[in Spanish]

Two weeks later, investigators are hot on the trail

of El Chapo once again.

We're relying heavily on electronic mine frame,

that's the big thing.

We developed intelligence that a safe house is being built

for Chapo and Los Muchis.

[phone ringing]

And we get the information

that Grandma is coming,

and that's the new codename for Chapo.

And next thing you know,

Chapo ordered a whole bunch of tacos

and had 'em brought to the house.

The Mexican Marines stormed the door.

[explosion]

Immediately, a firefight breaks out.

[gunfire]

[all shouting]

[gunfire]

[shouting in Spanish]

This time, he's not with his wife and children

and he is ultimately detained and arrested.

[in Spanish]

El Chapo's capture ends the biggest manhunt

in Mexican history.

He was apprehended in Mexico

six months after he tunneled his way out...

[in Spanish]

[truck horn honking]

[tires squealing]

El Chapo's capture ends the biggest manhunt

in Mexican history.

[in Spanish]

[truck horn honking]

[tires squealing]

As you looked into his eyes, you can see the surprise.

You can see the shock.

And to a certain extent, you can actually see the fear.

[in Spanish]

For us, it was the ultimate victory dance.

That's when we knew we won. No doubt.

When you think back on all the man hours

and the sweat you put into

locating this very evil person.

After all the pain and sorrow

and loss of life that Chapo brought to the United States,

his extradition to the US,

it was a proud moment for all of us.

There's good and bad in everybody.

I judge him based on

how he has treated me all these years.

PRODUCER: Tell us how you got involved Joaquin Guzman.

I took the bar on February 2018 in New York.

And as I was waiting for the results,

on Craigslist, there was an ad.

Part-time job for a Spanish speaker,

paralegal, criminal defence law firm.

So I was like, "Okay, bingo, that's me."

So when they said, "Before you accept,

the client is Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman."

I was like, "Awesome, great. Where do I start?

Now I want to start, like, tomorrow!"

I mean, you have the biggest criminal trial of the century.

Attorneys work 30, 40 years in their career

to land a case like this.

So I saw it as a professional opportunity right away.

When I met Mr. Guzman,

we had a glass dividing us,

he put his hand on the glass and I put my hand on the glass,

and that was like, our first hello, and we talked.

I love talking, he loves talking, so we clicked.

I met Emma not long after I met El Chapo.

Emma and I became friends pretty quickly

because of the amount of time that we were spending together,

and then she moved to New York

basically when the trial started.

[in Spanish]

The trial for the Mexican drug lord,

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is underway.

The police motorcade taking him to the courthouse

in Brooklyn.

Guzman pleaded not guilty

to 17 counts

including drug trafficking and murder.

The trial definitely was a media circus.

[reporter walla]

The press was there, waiting every day.

Trying to get a few words out of her.

[in Spanish]

I would take Emma to court every morning.

Excuse me. 'Scuse me.

Take her back home after court.

[camera clicking]

I think she handled it really well.

I don't know what I would have done

had I been in her situation,

I probably would have left crying almost every day.

I admire her for that, you know.

The first thing that Chapo would do

when he would get into the courtroom

was he would turn around and look for her.

There was that constant longing and tension between them.

Where they would be making faces and goo-goo eyes at each other.

At least once or twice, the judge stopped

the proceedings, like, "Hey, eyes up here."

Because it would kind of get a little bit much.

His story is paraded out

and all the characters come in one by one,

and they tell their version of events.

Some of the guys wouldn't even look at Chapo.

But others, you know, I think one guy kind of like,

touched his heart and there'd be like,

nods and there'd be like, appreciation,

it was almost like a family reunion.

The testimonies against Chapo mentioned that

he ordered a lot of killings.

Witness testimonies also portray him as a killer.

And testimonies about enemies

that he ordered to be buried alive.

We would watch Emma during the proceedings

to see, how does she respond, does she seem to already know?

Like, what is this person's real feeling?

[in Spanish]

[in Spanish]

It's obvious who Chapo was.

Everyone knew that if you crossed Chapo,

you were putting your life in danger.

Chapo was involved violence, a lot of violence.

In my opinion,

I believe she had to at least hear

about the killings.

Or she probably listened to some orders

given to kill someone by her husband.

During the whole trial,

she didn't have any expression of surprise.

[in Spanish]

Throughout much of the trial,

Emma had been really stoic until Lucero's testimony.

Lucero was one of the women in Chapo's trial

who was a lover of his,

but she was also quite entrenched in the business.

Lucero immediately asserts ownership over El Chapo.

She refers to him as "my husband, Joaquin."

And Emma, she's having a little bit of a hard time.

That's when you saw the woman.

[in Spanish]

The day after Lucero's first day of testimony,

everybody looks from Emma to El Chapo

and we realize that they're wearing matching

maroon velvet blazers.

[in Spanish]

It sort of felt like this was Emma's way of asserting

ownership over her husband.

You're referring to my husband as your husband,

but he is with me

and he is saying that through what he's wearing.

[in Spanish]

Literally after that day of testimony,

I looked at Emma and I said,

"Oh, what's this with the jackets?"

And she looked at me and she smiled and she said,

"Que coincidencia." What a coincidence.

Let me get the door! Outta the way. Out of the way.

There was also a cloud of suspicion around her,

because there's this sense that any moment,

that she could be implicated.

During the trial,

there were a couple of mentions of her,

but really Emma wasn't implicated publicly

until Domaso Lopez.

Damaso Lopez was the godfather

of one of Chapo's twins with Emma.

He was his right hand at the end.

He was there with one purpose.

To describe how he escaped.

Who was involved.

This was when other people in the room started to see

that there was more to Emma than her curvaceous figure

and her nice outfits.

[tense music]

Damaso Lopez Nunez testified

that Emma did take part in the escape.

Damaso's orchestrating things from the outside

while Chapo's orchestrating things from the inside.

And Emma is that go-between.

Her role intensifies

as the plans continue to take shape.

She allegedly is quite likely

the very person who sneaks a GPS device to El Chapo

so that they can determine his exact coordinates in the cell.

And I think when people realize that thing that El Chapo

was most famous for...

El Chapo has done it again.

The spectacular escape...

...was in part helped by Emma.

That was an interesting mindshift.

When people stopped looking just at Chapo

and started turning to the woman sitting alone

on the second row in court.

[sighs]

In testimony during El Chapo's trial,

it comes out that she had a part in his escape.

[in Spanish]

She had the option to never come back.

"Okay, they're talking about me,

I'm going to get the hell out of here

and good luck finding me in Mexico."

- Walk away. - 'Scuse me.

Come on now.

Move out the way of the vehicle!

But she didn't do that.

Hey!

[in Spanish]

[sighs]

I'm not... I can't answer that.

[in Spanish]

[intriguing music]

They took days deliberating.

Then I remember that, y'know, we're all just anxious, waiting.

Minutes ago, a federal jury here in the eastern district

convicted Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera

on all counts.

The jury found that Guzman led the Sinaloa cartel.

And that he's responsible for the smuggling

of massive amounts of narcotics into the United States

and violence, including murders,

his conviction will bring a sentence of life

without the possibility of parole.

It is a sentence from which there is no escape

and no return.

[in Spanish]

Guys! Come on! Come on!

[in Spanish]

[sighs]

We were disappointed. Still, we were sad.

But our client Guzman was the one that kept on saying,

you know what, guys, you did a great job.

Ultimately, I think they couldn't get past the fact

that it was "El Chapo" Guzman, you know.

There was no doubt in my mind he was going to be convicted.

When he was convicted, it was a great moment.

What we wanted to do was show the world

that the rule of law works.

If you ruin lives and you murder people,

we will come get you,

no matter how big or how rich or how famous you are,

and you will stand trial,

and you will be punished if you're found guilty.

To those individuals out there

that are involved in drug trafficking as

El Chapo was,

you are not unreachable,

you are not untouchable,

and your day will come.

[in Spanish]

[suspenseful music]

The wife of the world's most notorious drug lord,

Emma Coronel Aispuro, arrested Monday.

Coronel is charged with both conspiring with her husband

to distribute drugs and conspiring with El Chapo

to spring him from a Mexican supermax prison.

She got arrested and I flew into DC that same night.

After that, then we started working on the case.

PRODUCER: Did she ever consider going to trial?

No, because she has two daughters that needed her

and if she went to trial and lost,

she could have faced life in prison.

After Emma was arrested,

we began corresponding while she was incarcerated.

She spends some really gruelling first few days in Virginia

as she waits for her court date.

She was on her period when she was arrested

and they gave her like, two pads the entire four days.

And they also wouldn't let her take a shower,

and she didn't know how to ask for a shower

and so she was like, on the phone

with one of her lawyers, Mariel,

and Mariel is like, spelling out S-H-O--

[spelling in Spanish]

"Blanket," that was another word

that I helped her with, because she was cold, so...

She is, you know, put in solitary,

which of course, they say they do for her safety

and there was certainly a safety element to it,

but that's also incredibly lonely.

[in Spanish]

[acoustic guitar music]

The wife of jailed Mexican drug lord

Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman is reportedly going to plead

guilty this morning.

[in Spanish]

I'm going to be brief.

She got a 36-month sentence.

Vaya con dios.

[cameras clicking]

[in Spanish]

The wife of the infamous Mexican drug lord known

as El Chapo was released from federal custody today.

As part of her release, she will have to be supervised

for four years.

And she will have to give up $1.5 million dollars.

The money issue is really an interesting...

Chapo asked to turn over more than 12 and a half billion.

That might not even be all of what they've accumulated.

PRODUCER: And where do you think the money is?

That's a good question. Um...

I wish I knew.

There was a joke in the team,

that Chapo's money was like

the last scene of Raiders of the Lost Ark.

Somewhere, instead of just being one crate, there's like,

5,000 crates stacked full of money

and some little guy's just pushing them through a warehouse

some place.

You know. It's out there.

PRODUCER: And do you think that she has access to any of it?

You know, I don't know.

That would be incredibly dangerous for her

because it would only lead to her getting more time in prison.

[in Spanish]

[upbeat music]

I wrote a corrido about Emma, yeah, a song about Emma.

La Senora.

[singing in Spanish]

I'm still a full-time attorney,

but now I also have another full-time career,

which is singing.

[singing in Spanish]

The song is 100 percent inspired by her.

The message is people should not judge you

based on one bad season of your life.

She's a boss of her own destiny, of her own life.

The video appearance with Mariel,

Emma is playing the part of cartel boss

when she clearly wasn't.

She was a cartel boss wife.

That fascinates people too, about her.

She's a little big enigmatic

and very much controls the way she projects herself

to the world.

[upbeat Spanish music]

Whether she can escape the cartel

is sort of a question of her own making

because she's also so famous

and it's a fame that she's cultivated.

But I think I would be treading very carefully from now on,

were I her,

in terms of what she says about her life

before she was incarcerated.

Many of the people

that she was involved with during that time

remain in Mexico's criminal underworld.

So they're going to be watching very closely,

everything she says and everything she does.

Though I'm sure she's deeply conscious of that.

We live in a day and age

where a lot of people are obsessed with true crime.

It gives you your bad guys, it gives you your good guys,

it tells you the people that you get to root for.

The thing is, there's no story that is that black and white.

And certainly when you have a 17-year-old

who is married to a high-powered drug lord,

what was she supposed to do?

She couldn't tell him no.

Is a 17-year-old really capable

of making such a crucial decision

that's going to impact the rest of her life?

I don't think she was mature enough

to make that decision.

But unfortunately, the way that the world works,

it's something that she's going to have to live with.

As most people see it, she chose evil over good.

[gunfire]

The war on drugs, it's already lost.

And around 200 people die

every 24 hours in the US.

By an overdose.

Nobody knows exactly the number of people

who already died in Mexico because of the war on drugs.

[sobbing]

Narco traffickers

don't see anything wrong.

They don't feel any guilt.

They see Narco traffic as a normal business.

And people die

because of the nature of the business.

She was living off the profits

of all the poison that the Sinaloa cartel had sold.

That's part of the crime.

I think she got a good deal.

And she did her time.

She's not the perfect victim

but she's also not your quintessential criminal.

She was a pawn in a game

that she very much learned how to play

and she found a way to get out of the game.

And most people don't do that.

There's good and there's bad, like I said.

And I don't think that some of the life choices

should define a person.

She's learned a lot,

and I think that at the end of the day,

she is ready to put this past her

and start fresh with her daughters.

[in Spanish]

PRODUCER 1: Is there anything else that...

PRODUCER 2: No, I think it's good.

[in Spanish]

[acoustic guitar music]