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| ...his re-capture last year |
In a scheme befitting a crime novel,
Mexico's most powerful drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, escaped
from a maximum security prison through a 1.5-kilometer (1 mile) tunnel that
opened into the shower area of his cell, the country's top security official
announced Sunday.
The elaborate, ventilated escape hatch built allegedly 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.
Eighteen employees from various part
of the Altiplano prison 55 miles (90 kilometers) west of Mexico City have been
taken in for questioning, Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido said in
a news conference without answering questions.
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 U.S. border with Mexico.
Journalists near
the Altiplano saw the roads were being heavily patrolled by Federal Police with
numerous checkpoints and a Blackhawk helicopter flying overhead. Flights were
also suspended at Toluca airport near the penitentiary in the State of Mexico,
and civil aviation hangars were being searched.
Guzman was last seen about 9 p.m.
Saturday in the shower area of his cell, according to a statement from the
National Security Commission. After a time, he was lost by the prison's
security camera surveillance network. Upon checking his cell, authorities found
it empty and a 20-by-20-inch (50-by-50 centimeter) hole near the shower.
Guzman's escape is a major
embarrassment to the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto, which had
received plaudits for its aggressive approach to top drug lords. Since the
government took office in late 2012, Mexican authorities have nabbed or killed
six of them, including Guzman.
Guzman faces multiple federal drug
trafficking indictments in the U.S. as well as Mexico, and was on the U.S. Drug
Enforcement Administration's most-wanted list.
After Guzman was arrested on Feb.
22, 2014, the U.S. said it would file an extradition request, though it's not
clear if that happened.
The Mexican government at the time
vehemently denied the need to extradite Guzman, even as many expressed fears he
would escape as he did in 2001 while serving a 20-year sentence in the
country's other top-security prison, Puente Grande, in the western state of
Jalisco.
an AP Report
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