New York Daily News

Beauty queen wife frets over druglord health

- BY ANDREW KESHNER

THIS BEAUTY queen is worried about her kingpin.

El Chapo’s wife Emma Coronel broke her silence Tuesday in front of Brooklyn Federal Court, telling reporters she was beside herself because the ruthless druglord is not adjusting well to jail.

“(My) main worry is his health because I know he’s in a very bad psychologi­cal state. He feels very bad, the lawyers have told me, and that worries me,” Coronel said in front of a group of reporters.

Joaquin (El Chapo) Guzman, who was extradited from Mexico last January to face charges of narco-traffickin­g, money laundering, kidnapping and murder, has been suffering behind bars, his missus said.

Teetering on high heels, with her long jet-black hair and beestung lips, Coronel beseeched prosecutor­s to go easy on her schlubby hubby (both below).

“How is he going to get to trial if his health is not good?” the 28-year-old stunner said of her 61-year-old spouse.

Coronel, speaking in Spanish, noted Guzman’s lawyers and the couple’s twin girls are allowed to see him in lockup, but she only gets to see him in court and isn’t otherwise allowed to speak or visit with him.

Coronel has brought the young girls to past court dates. But Tuesday, she came to court without them, showing off a one-shoulder white blouse inside Judge Brian Cogan’s courtroom.

Her husband, decked out in a navy blue jail uniform, gave her a hearty wave as he was led in and out of court.

Guzman didn’t speak at the brief hearing, but his lawyer, Eduardo Balarezo, said he was planning for Guzman to undergo another evaluation by a neuropsych­ologist.

Like Coronel, Balarezo has fretted about Guzman’s mental state in solitary confinemen­t.

He’s being held at the Metropolit­an Correction­al Center in lower Manhattan.

The judge told prosecutor­s to turn over all their evidence to the defense by May 18. He said there was a “good chance” he’d block any evidence prosecutor­s produced after that.

Cogan said he’d bring in between 800 and 1,000 potential jurors this summer to fill out questionna­ires.

Jury selection in Guzman’s trial is scheduled to start in September.

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