News Digest

Drugs baron ‘Chapo’ Guzman escapes from prison through mile-long tunnel

Drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman escaped through a 1.5km (1 mile) tunnel that opened into the shower area of his cell, it emerged Sunday. With the elaborate escape hatch built allegedly without the detection of authorities, Guzman has done what Mexican authorities promised would not happen after his re-capture last year — slipped out of a maximum security prison for the second time. Eighteen employees from various part of the Altiplano prison 90km (56 miles) west of Mexico City have been taken in for questioning, security commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido said in a news conference on Sunday. A manhunt began immediately late Saturday for the head of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, which has an international reach and is believed to control most of the major crossing points for drugs at the US border with Mexico.

They were concerned about how dangerous he was, and they had a lack of confidence in the Mexican authorities to stop him operating from jail.

Alberto Islas, a security expert at consultancy Risk Evaluation

Guzman ran Mexico’s powerful Sinaloa Cartel, which smuggled billions of dollars worth of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines into the US and fought vicious turf wars with other Mexican gangs. Guzman was arrested last year at a beach resort 13 years after he escaped Puente Grande prison near the city of Guadalajara. He was last seen about 9pm on Saturday in the shower area of the Altiplano prison, the National Security Commission said. After a time, he was lost by the prison’s security camera surveillance network. Upon checking his cell, authorities found it empty. Beneath a 50 cm by 50 cm gap in the shower area, guards found a ladder going down some 10m into the tunnel, which was about 1.7m high and 70-80cm wide. Guzman’s escape is an embarrassment to the administration of president Enrique Pena Nieto, which has received plaudits for its aggressive approach to top drug lords.

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