WASHINGTON: A US judge sentenced the wife of imprisoned Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to three years in prison on Tuesday, after she pleaded guilty to helping the Sinaloa drug cartel.

Before her sentencing in a federal court in Washington, Emma Coronel Aispuro, 32, pleaded with U.S. District Judge Rudolph Contreras to show her mercy.

“With all due respect, I address you today to express my true regret for any and all harm that I may have done, and I ask that you and all the citizens of this country forgive me,” she said in Spanish through an interpreter.

She added that she feared the judge might find it difficult to forgive her because she is Guzman’s wife. “Perhaps for this reason you feel there is a need for you to be harder on me, but I pray that you not do that,” she added.

Coronel pleaded guilty in June to three counts of conspiring to distribute illegal drugs, conspiring to launder money and of engaging in financial dealings with the Sinaloa drug cartel. Federal prosecutors on Tuesday asked that a four-year prison term be imposed on Coronel, adding that she would be forfeiting $1.5 million as part of her sentence.