Mexico hunts for drug lord after prison tunnel escape

He was last seen at about 9 p.m.at the Altiplano prison entering his shower room, said Monte Alejandro Rubido, head of Mexico’s National Security Commission.

Mexican authorities said they have brought 18 prison workers to Mexico City for questioning by investigators.

Now a massive manhunt is underway to find Guzman, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto said.

El Chapo during his arrest in February 2014.

“If he’s not captured in the next 48 hours, he will have completely regained control of the Sinaloa cartel”, Mike Vigil, a retired US Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) worldwide operations chief, told AFP.

Guzman was caught by authorities for the first time in Guatemala in 1993, extradited and sentenced to 20 years in prison in Mexico for murder and drug trafficking.

In 2001, Guzman paid guards to help him slip out of the high-security Puente Grande prison near the city of Guadalajara after a previous arrest in 1993. “This is certainly an affront to the Mexican state”.

His nickname, El Chapo, means “shorty”, and comes from his relative small stature; he stands a little under five feet five inches (165 centimetres).

There also have been conflicting reports regarding Toluca airport, which is nearby.

After Guzman was arrested on February 22, 2014, the US said it would file an extradition request, though it’s not clear if that happened.

The 724-capacity facility covers a surface of 26 hectares (64 acres), with the actual prison accounting for 2.8 hectares of that space while the rest is used for the security perimeter, according to a document from the now-defunct public safety ministry.

Several USA attorneys’ offices have indicted Guzman on trafficking charges, including in Chicago, where several Guzman lieutenants were successfully extradited, prosecuted and imprisoned.

He continued his posts through the day: “Now that the Mexican drug lord escaped from prison, everyone is saying that most of the cocaine etc. coming into the USA comes over border!”

The gap led to the 1.5-kilometre (one-mile) tunnel with a ventilation and light system, Rubido said, adding that its exit was in a building that was under construction in central Mexico State. Prosecutors say the Tijuana drug cartel, another offshoot of the Guadalajara Cartel, mistook him for Guzman in a bungled assassination attempt.

Guzman’s estimated fortune at the time was $1 billion.

Speaking to reporters Sunday from France, where he is traveling on a state visit, Peña Nieto avoided mentioning the drug lord by name, but he said he was closely following news of the escape of a man who has been among the most wanted criminals in Mexico and around the world.

That makes the bold escape by “El Chapo” from a maximum security prison all the more devastating. “It is a shock that the most risky cartel leader in the world has escaped”, Peter Bensinger said Sunday.

The tunnels are viewed as a major security threat by U.S. Homeland Security, though there is no evidence yet that the versions operated by Mexican traffickers have been used by terrorist groups.

He finally was tracked down to a modest beachside high-rise in the Pacific Coast resort city of Mazatlan, where he had been hiding with his wife and twin daughters.

Mexican President called on Sunday for a full investigation into the jailbreak of drug lord to uncover whether any public officials helped the kingpin escape even as ‘s attorney general told journalists that dozens of prison employees were being questioned about possible involvement.