Top Mexican drug lord escapes from prison through 5,000ft-long tunnel
MEXICO’S top drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has escaped through an elaborate tunnel in his cell.
Security Commission official Monte Alejandro Rubido said the tunnel was nearly 5,000ft long and had ventilation and stairs.
Officials also found a motorcycle that was used to remove dirt, Mr Rubido said.
The escape late on Saturday was Guzman’s second from a maximum security prison in Mexico.
Guzman, who headed the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, was last seen in the area of the showers in the Altiplano prison outside of Mexico City.
A search operation began immediately in the surrounding area and highways. Flights have also been suspended at Toluca airport near the prison.
Guzman has been in prison since February 2014.
Guzman’s escape is a blow to the administration of president Enrique Pena Nieto, which has received plaudits for its aggressive approach to drug lords.
Since the government took office in late 2012, Mexican authorities have captured or killed six of them, including Guzman.
Guzman was caught by authorities for the first time in Guatemala in 1993, extradited and sentenced to 20 years in prison on drug-trafficking related char ges. He escaped from Puente Grande, another Mexican maximum-security prison in western Jalisco state, in 2001 with the help of prison guards. He is thought to have escaped in a laundry cart, although there have been several versions of the tale of how he got away.
He was re-captured in February 2014 after eluding authorities for days across his home state of Sinaloa, for which the cartel is named.
Guzman faces multiple federal drug trafficking indictments in the US as well as Mexico, and was on the US Drug Enforcement Administration’s most-wanted list.
During his first stint as a fugitive, Guzman transformed himself into arguably the most powerful drug trafficker in the world. His fortune grew to be estimated at more than £640 million, according to Forbes magazine, which listed him among the “World’s Most Powerful People” and ranked him above the presidents of France and Venezuela.