Wife of Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman to plead guilty

The wife of Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, Emma Coronel Aispuro, is expected to plead guilty on Thursday in federal court in Washington, where she has been accused of helping her husband run the Sinaloa cartel of smugglers, court records show, Reuters reports.

Coronel, who prosecutors say played a key role in Guzman's 2015 escape from a Mexican prison, is slated to appear for a virtual hearing at 10 a.m. eastern time  (1400 GMT) before U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras.

Reuters could not immediately determine what charges she will plead guilty to, and there was no additional information on the court docket.

If convicted on all charges she faces, she could be sentenced to as long as life in prison and fined up to US$10 million. Attorneys for Coronel could not be immediately reached.

The 31-year-old former beauty queen was arrested in February on allegations that she relayed messages to help Guzman conduct drug trafficking from 2012 to early 2014, and continued delivering messages while visiting him in a Mexican prison following his February 2014 arrest.