Inside the Tunnel El Chapo Used for His Latest Prison Escape

REUTERS/Edgard Garrido A view of an area of the tunnel connected to the Altiplano Federal Penitentiary and used by drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to escape, in Almoloya de Juarez, on the outskirts of Mexico City, July 14, 2015.

At least 34 employees at the maximum-security prison have been questioned about the disappearance of the Mexican drug lord.

El Chapo was arrested in Guatemala in 1993 and was serving a 20-year sentence when he broke out of prison by hiding in a laundry basket in 2001. The U.S. wants a joint task force formed with Mexico to track Guzman down again, but thus far Mexico has refused to join it. The picture is getting pretty clear: Mexico put a lot of money into springing El Chapo for some reason, and they clearly don’t want him in U.S. hands. Guzman would have traversed the mile-long tunnel on either a specially modified motorcycle or one of two carts pushed along steel rails.

Riley said Guzman vanished just as USA prosecutors, with indictments against Guzman in several states, including California and Illinois, “had in place the documents” to seek the cartel leader’s extradition from Mexico to face federal charges in this country.

The escape tunnel was more than 1.5km (1 mile) long.

Officials declined to say whether the prison’s director, who was fired on Monday, was among those released or kept in custody.

The video shows the diminutive Guzman – his nickname means “Shorty – apparently urinating before walking toward his small bed”.

“I don’t know if it’s the biggest failure in his administration”, he said, “but it’s certainly the biggest crisis he has faced”.

Mexico’s government on Tuesday broadcast security camera footage of Guzman in the final moments before he escaped from the maximum security prison.

The tunnel, which is around 5½ft high and almost 3ft wide, is said to have taken a year to build and came complete with oxygen tanks, lighting and even stairs.

Once it was discovered that the drug lord had escaped from his cell, it still took the prison authorities 30 minutes to raise the alarm.

Riley said authorities will concentrate on sources “on both sides of the border”, as well as “close members and associates” who have turned their backs on Guzman. One of the Guzman indictments has been filed in Chicago.

“If he went out that tunnel, it was with an armed escort, most likely a mix of prison guards and his own people, if the past is prologue”, author Don Winslow said, via CNN. A Twitter account, allegedly belonging to Guzman or a family member, sent threatening tweets to Trump in response.

The 60-square-foot room is inside the wing for the country’s most unsafe criminals, where the drug lord spent the past year and a half in solitary confinement under 24-hour-surveillance, a monitoring bracelet on his wrist.