Where is Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán now? Details explored as Married to El Chapo: Emma Coronel Speaks drops on Oxygen

A name that still sends shivers down corridors of justice and cartel hideouts alike, Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán remains one of the most notorious criminals in modern history. Once the head of Sinaloa Cartel, a vast network of drug trafficking and organized crime, Guzmán escaped from maximum-security prisons twice in Mexico before a final recapture in 2016. 

With multiple arrests, extradition, and a high-profile trial in the United States, countless headlines have asked: Where is El Chapo now? That question has a definitive answer. Meanwhile, as a new documentary titled Married to El Chapo: Emma Coronel Speaks prepares to drop, the world gets a glimpse into his personal life through the eyes of his former wife. 

The special premieres on Friday, November 28, 2025, at 8:00 p.m. ET on Oxygen True Crime, also available for streaming on Peacock. 

Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán is currently where?

Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán is currently serving his sentence in the United States at the supermax prison ADX Florence, located in Florence, Colorado. After his recapture in Mexico in January 2016, he was extradited to the U.S. on January 19, 2017. He was initially put in the Metropolitan Correctional Centre in Manhattan, and then his trial began in November 2018. 

In February 2019, he was found guilty of numerous counts that included drug trafficking, money laundering, organized crime, and murder. On July 17, 2019, he received a life sentence in prison, plus 30 years, and was ordered to forfeit more than US$12.6 billion.

Given the level of super-maximum security and isolation at ADX Florence, where no prisoner has ever escaped, it is assumed by many that he will spend the remainder of his days there, as per The Washington Post.

From fugitive to extraditee: The road to capture and trial

The story of El Chapo’s downfall is a dramatic saga. He originally gained notoriety in the 1990s for leading the Sinaloa Cartel, a vast criminal network involved in drug trafficking across borders. After being arrested and imprisoned in the 1990s, he escaped, and this became a pattern. His first escape in 2001 from a maximum-security prison in Jalisco shocked the world. 

For more than a decade, he evaded law enforcement through tunnels, safe houses and his cartel’s vast resources. Then, after his second dramatic prison escape in 2015, authorities intensified the manhunt. On January 8, 2016, he was finally recaptured by Mexican forces, according to The Guardian.

Mexico quickly moved to extradite him to the United States, where he faced charges in multiple federal courts for drug trafficking, organized crime, murder, and more. Upon extradition on January 19, 2017, he was placed in U.S. federal custody.

Jury selection for the trial began in November 2018 under heavy security measures: jurors remained anonymous, and Guzmán was transported under strict guard. The trial concluded with a February 12, 2019, guilty verdict on all counts.

Less than six months later, on July 17, 2019, he received his life sentence plus an additional 30 years, a punishment meant to ensure he never regains freedom. 

Life inside ADX Florence: What his current reality looks like

ADX Florence is widely regarded as the most secure prison in the United States, and possibly the world. Since opening in 1994, no inmate has ever escaped from it. For someone like El Chapo, whose previous escapes and power made him uniquely dangerous, ADX offers rigorous security: inmates are held in near-constant isolation, with extremely limited movement and strict surveillance, as per The Washington Post.

Under such conditions, any hope of another escape appears all but impossible. According to former federal corrections officers, for an inmate to break out, it would require massive collusion, effectively “having a warden in their pocket.”

As such, El Chapo’s likely reality is that he will remain incarcerated at ADX Florence for the remainder of his life. Given the life-plus-30-years sentence, U.S. courts effectively removed any chance of future release, as per The Washington Post. 

Personal side revealed: Why Married to El Chapo: Emma Coronel Speaks matters

Despite being locked away, the story of El Chapo continues, not just through criminal investigations, but through human stories, one of which is depicted in the upcoming documentary Emma Coronel Aispuro, his former spouse.

In this documentary, Coronel offers an unprecedented, first-person account of her life with El Chapo, from meeting him as a teenager to marrying a man decades her senior, living under constant danger and secrecy, and eventually facing legal consequences. 

Her story sheds light on what life was like behind the headlines: the fears, the family dynamics, and the moral and emotional toll of being married to one of the world’s most infamous criminals, as per Oxygen. 

Watch Why Married to El Chapo: Emma Coronel Speaks streaming on Oxygen.