A former Meixcan state legislator financially and romantically linked to Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán was arrested Wednesday after trying to enter the United States.

Lucero Guadalupe Sánchez was detained by federal law enforcement officials Wednesday as she was attempting to cross the border from Tijuana into San Diego. The U.S. Attorney's office in San Diego said they had conducted several wiretap investigations over 2013-2014 of El Chapo's associates that linked Sanchez to discussions concerning money laundering and the transport of illicit drug profits.

Sanchez was reportedly trying to enter the U.S. on some kind of asylum status, willing to give out information on the cartel to American law enforcement, a statement that is being backed up by her lawyers.

“Neither she nor we had any idea that she was under investigation,” attorney Francisco Verdugo told the San Diego Union-Tribune. “If she had, she wouldn’t have gone there.”

Sanchez, a former state legislator for Sinaloa where El Chapo considers his home operating base, denies that she was ever El Chapo's girlfriend. Signed affidavits attached to Sanchez's arrest warrant have her on tape declaring herself El Chapo's lover and detailed knowledge that only an eyewitness would have of his February 2014 escape from Mexican police via tunnels under his Culiacan, Mexico residence.

In her first court appearance on Thursday, Magistrate Judge Barbara Major ordered Lopez to be held without bail because of her high flight risk. "El Chapodiputada" or the "Chapo Legislator" has been repudiated by her former political party in Mexico and distanced themselves from Lopez, citing a lack of devotion to their cause.

This isn't a first for El Chapo, his pregnant daughter was caught trying to sneak into the U.S. with a fake visa in September 2012. When he's not worried about his associates dropping like flies from a U.S. federal prison, he gets angry that a TV show is getting all the details of his life wrong.

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