Mexican Drug Lord 'El Chapo' Escapes From Prison

Mexican Drug Lord 'El Chapo' Escapes From PrisonCassius Ukwugbe: July 14, 2015

MEXICO CITY — Mexico mounted an all-out manhunt Sunday for its most powerful drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who authorities said escaped from a maximum security prison through a 1.5-kilometer (1 mile) tunnel from a small opening in the shower area of his cell.
The elaborate underground escape route, allegedly built without the detection of authorities, allowed Guzman to do what Mexican officials promised would never happen after his re-capture last year — slip out of one of the country's most secure penitentiaries for the second time.
"This represents without a doubt an affront to the Mexican state," President Enrique Pena Nieto said while on a previously scheduled trip to France. "But I also have confidence in the institutions of the Mexican state ... that they have the strength and determination to recapture this criminal."

Federal policemen stand outside of the Altiplano prison in Almoloya de Juarez, Toluca, Mexico, If Guzman is not caught immediately, the drug lord will likely be back in full command and control of the Sinaloa Cartel in 48 hours, said Michael S. Vigil, a retired U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief of international operations.
"We may never find him again," he said. "All the accolades that Mexico has received in their counterdrug efforts will be erased by this one event."
Mexico's extraditions of drug suspects to the United States have dropped under Pena Nieto's administration, with Mexico preferring to try them at home. But that alternative doesn't work if Mexico can't keep them in prison, or get them to trial.
Rep. Filemon Vela, a Democrat from Texas, wrote that Mexico's failure to extradite Guzman and other figures facing charges in the United States "is an insult to the law enforcement and prosecutorial personnel who have worked for years to build criminal cases against these drug profiteers."
"The United States needs to exercise stronger diplomatic muscle" to ensure Guzman and others are sent north to face charges, Vega wrote.
Thirty employees from various part of the Altiplano prison, 55 miles (90 kilometers) west of Mexico City, have been taken in for questioning, the federal Attorney General's Office said.
When the escape was discovered late Saturday, a widespread manhunt began immediately for Guzman, whose cartel is believed to control most of the major crossing points for drugs at the U.S. border with Mexico.


Federal policemen inspect a pipe under construction by the Altiplano prison in Almoloya de Juarez, Mexico

Federal policemen inspect a pipeline under construction by the Altiplano prison in Almoloya de Juarez, Mexico on July 12, 2015. (YURI CORTEZ/AFP/Getty Images) Guzman's cartel is known for building elaborate tunnels beneath the Mexico-U.S. border to transport cocaine, methamphetamines and marijuana, with ventilation, lighting and even railcars to easily move products.
He was first caught by authorities in Guatemala in 1993, extradited and sentenced to 20 years in prison on drug-trafficking-related charges. Many accounts say he escaped in 2001 in a laundry cart, although there have been several versions of how he got away. What is clear is that he had help from prison guards, who were prosecuted and convicted.
Guzman was finally re-captured in February 2014 after eluding authorities for days across his home state of Sinaloa.
Born 58 years ago, according to Interpol, he and allies took control of the Sinaloa faction when a larger syndicate began to fall apart in 1989.
During his first stint as a fugitive, Guzman transformed himself into arguably the most powerful drug trafficker in the world. His fortune was estimated at more than $1 billion, according to Forbes magazine, which listed him among the "World's Most Powerful People," ranked above the presidents of France and Venezuela.
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. He was captured in the early morning of Feb. 22, 2014, without a shot fired.