El Chapo’ escapes from maximum security prison, again — KUSI News

Pena Nieto said in a televised interview that allowing him to escape again would be “unforgiveable”. “All the accolades that Mexico has received in their counterdrug efforts will be erased by this one event”, Vigil said.

The secretive and barely literate Mexican drug lord oversaw The explosion of subterranean networks used to smuggle massive amounts of narcotics across the USA border.

United States Attorney General Loretta Lynch said the U.S.is ready to help Mexico in the manhunt for Joaquin Chapo Guzman.

Police and troops guarded the outskirts of the vast prison, surrounded by cornfields, while helicopters flew overhead. Flights have also been suspended at Toluca airport near the penitentiary. He went to the shower area but after some time was lost by security camera surveillance.

Upon checking his cell, authorities found it empty and there was a 50-by-50 centimetre hole near the shower.

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. Reuters reported Sunday Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto said he has faith authorities will be able to recapture the fugitive. In 2001, Guzmán escaped the high-security Puente Grande prison near the city of Guadalajara by paying guards to help him slip out.

The government of the USA had asked for that Guzman be extradited for crimes in the USA but Mexican authorities denied the request, insisting that Guzman could not escape again.

Gutierrez Guzman’s attorney Scott F. Gleason declined to comment yesterday on Guzman’s escape or whether he’s concerned about his client’s safety. That risk “does not exist”, Murillo Karam said. “This is a huge embarrassment for the Mexican government”, Ana Maria Salazar, a security analyst says.

The official USA reaction was measured.

A motorcycle was also discovered, which police believe was used to transport tools and remove earth from the space. El Chapo’s Sinaloa Cartel is notorious for cocaine and heroin trade in Chicago. They would not confirm the location of the end of the tunnel directly to the AP.

“It was just a matter of time that this senor make a mockery of the government’s holding him”, says Arturo Martinez Perez, a 52-year-old school teacher. He said they were very friendly and not from the area.

His legend grew in the years that followed his first escape.

Marines recaptured him in February previous year in a pre-dawn raid in Mazatlan, in Sinaloa state, with the help of the US Drug Enforcement Administration. He was listed as 56 years old at the time, though there are varying dates for his birth.

Guzman is the storied boss of one of the world’s most powerful and deadly drug trafficking operations. He rose gradually within the Sinaloa cartel, and in the early 1990s took control.

Several states, including Guzman’s native Sinaloa, set up filters on roads.

Until Guzman’s escape, “the day had gone on normally and at about 8pm he was given his daily dose of medicine”.

Guzman’s Sinaloa cartel empire stretches along Mexico’s Pacific coast and deals drugs to the United States and as far as Europe and Asia.

ALMOLOYA DE JUÁREZ, Mexico: It was meant to be an impenetrable fortress to keep Mexico’s most infamous murderers, kidnappers and drug lords behind bars for most of their lives.