El Chapo likely going to ‘Alcatraz of the Rockies’

Convicted drug kingpin known for his daring escapes.

In the world of corrections, there are inmates who pose security risks, and then there’s El Chapo.

Drug lord Joaquin Guzman has an unparalleled record of jailbreaks, having escaped two high-security Mexican prisons before his ultimate capture and extradition to the United States.

So with Guzman convicted Tuesday of drug trafficking and staring at an expected life sentence, where will the U.S. imprison a larger-thanlife kingpin with a Houdini-like tendency to slip away?

Experts say Guzman seems the ideal candidate for the federal government’s “Supermax” prison in Florence, Colorado, also known as ADX for “administrative maximum.” The facility is so secure, so remote and so austere that it has been called the “Alcatraz of the Rockies.”

“El Chapo fits the bill perfectly,” said Cameron Lindsay, a retired warden who ran three federal lockups, including the Metropolitan Detention Center in Brooklyn. “I’d be absolutely shocked if he’s not sent to the ADX.”

Located outside an old mining town about two hours south of Denver, Supermax’s hardened buildings house the nation’s most violent offenders, with many of its 400 inmates held alone for 23 hours a day in 7-by-12-foot cells with fixed furnishings made of reinforced concrete.

Unabomber Ted Kaczynski, Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, Sept. 11 conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and Oklahoma City bombing accomplice Terry Nichols are among those who call it home.

But Guzman, set to be sentenced in June for smuggling enormous amounts of narcotics into the U.S. and having a hand in dozens of murders, would stand out even from Supermax’s infamous roster because of his almost mythical reputation for breaking out.

That includes a sensational 2015 escape from the maximum-security Altiplano prison in central Mexico, where he communicated with accomplices for weeks via cellphone, slipped into an escape hatch beneath his shower, hopped on the back of a waiting motorcycle and sped through a mile-long, hand-dug tunnel to freedom.

CHRIS MCLEAN / THE PUEBLO CHIEFTAIN 2007 Guard towers loom over the federal prison called Supermax near Florence, Colo. Experts say drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who will be sentenced on June 25, seems the ideal candidate for “Supermax” prison.

U.S. DRUG ENFORCEMENT ADMINISTRATION 2017 Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was convicted Tuesday of running an industrialscale smuggling operation.