El Chapo, Emma Coronel Lawyer to Defend Jalisco Cartel Boss El Mencho's Son, El Menchito
Ruben Oseguera Gonzalez, alias "El Menchito," the son of Jalisco cartel boss Nemesio "El Mencho" Oseguera Cervantes, has a new lawyer who was part of the legal team of Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Loera.
Mariel Colon Miro's first two clients were El Chapo and the late convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. El Chapo's wife, Emma Coronel Aispuro, is also represented by the 30-year-old lawyer from Puerto Rico, who is currently based out of New York.
Colon Miro previously said she was defending the Sinaloa Cartel boss with her "heart." According to Vice, she became part of El Chapo's legal team in 2017 before the Mexican drug lord's wife eventually hired her also to represent her.
Colon Miro, also a ranchera singer, reportedly applied for the work defending El Chapo after seeing it on Craigslist when she was 26, just after leaving college. The lawyer is just one of the three people permitted to speak with El Chapo daily. According to Colon Miro, the Sinaloa Cartel boss was "very nice and very respectful."
"We talk for hours because we both love to talk, so imagine... I'm still with him as a lawyer, so I think he likes me," the lawyer previously told Milenio. Colon Miro also said even El Chapo's wife became her friend.
"Mrs. Coronel is not only a client. I consider her a friend. We never imagined that she would be in that situation. And since we are almost the same age, obviously we talk and share many common ideas and spend a lot of time together," she noted.
Coronel Aispuro was sentenced to three years in prison on November 2021 for helping her husband run his multibillion-dollar drug empire. On the other hand, El Chapo is serving a life sentence after being found guilty in 2019 of all 10 federal charges he faced.
He was accused of illegally importing millions of kilos of cocaine from Mexico to the U.S., along with significant quantities of heroin and marijuana. The Sinaloa Cartel boss is currently being held in Colorado's Supermax, the most secure federal prison in the U.S.
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Aside From El Chapo, Mariel Colon Miro Is Also a Lawyer of El Mencho's Son, El Menchito
Based on court records dated April 17, Mariel Colon Miro is now set to defend El Mencho's son, Ruben Oseguera Gonzalez, during a trial set to take place in a Washington, D.C. court on May 3.
According to Daily Star, El Menchito is known to inherit the Jalisco cartel throne from his father in Mexico. He was considered by the U.S. the second in command of the notorious organization.
El Menchito was supposed to plead guilty on April 12 to an international conspiracy to traffic drugs and possession of firearms before Judge Beryl Alaine Howell of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia in Washington, D.C. However, his plan seemed to change after a new lawyer hired by his family showed up.
El Mencho's Son, El Menchito, Backtracks on Guilty Plea
According to VICE, the plea deal has been put on hold as the 33-year-old son of El Mencho is reconsidering taking his case to trial. El Menchito was foreseen to be the first high-profile Jalisco cartel figure to take his case to trial.
El Mencho's son reportedly notified prosecutors late last month that he would like to change his "not guilty" plea to guilty. However, a day before he was scheduled to change his plea, federal prosecutors filed a motion asking the judge to hold a "conflict inquiry" over a new lawyer seeking to represent El Menchito in his case.
Prosecutors said the defendant's family purportedly hired lawyer Arturo Hernandez on his behalf after he fired his two defense lawyers. During the April 12 hearing, Hernandez told the judge that he would seek to delay the trial since it would be hard for his client to proceed when he "has a conflict with his attorneys."
However, the judge told El Mencho's son that just because he wanted a new lawyer does not mean "you automatically get it." El Menchito replied that he only wanted "a second opinion" as he was "not happy" with the plea. He then appealed for more time and to postpone the trial.
The judge eventually agreed to postpone the hearing to give El Mencho's son time to get his "second opinion." The judge reportedly scheduled another hearing on April 21 to determine what happens next. Court records showed that Mariel Colon Miro had already informed the court that she was also hired as El Menchito's new lawyer.
El Mencho's son was first arrested in Zapopan in Mexico's Jalisco state on January 2014, but a federal court acquitted him in December of the same year for lack of evidence.
He was apprehended again on June 2015. Since then, he has remained in prison. The U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia charged El Mencho's son with international drug trafficking in 2017.
The U.S. government submitted its extradition request for El Menchito the same year, which Mexico's Secretariat of Foreign Affairs granted in October 2018. He was extradited to the U.S. in February 2020 after several appeals. El Menchito is facing a maximum sentence of life in prison if convicted.
The U.S. government has already offered a $10 million reward for information leading to the arrest of El Menchito's father, El Mencho. The Jalisco cartel boss remains one of the world's most elusive criminals.
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Written by: Bert Hoover
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