MEXICO-GUZMAN/PRISON Security presence high at prison and house where El Chapo's escape tunnel led

Record ID: 147327

  • Title: MEXICO-GUZMAN/PRISON Security presence high at prison and house where El Chapo's escape tunnel led
  • Date: 13th July 2015
  • Summary: ALMOLOYA DE JUAREZ, STATE OF MEXICO, MEXICO (JULY 13, 2015) (REUTERS) GOVERNMENT HELICOPTER ARRIVING AT ALTIPLANO PRISON FROM WHICH JOAQUIN "EL CHAPO" GUZMAN ESCAPED HELICOPTER FLYING OVER HOUSE WHERE ESCAPE TUNNEL LED OFFICIALS FROM THE ATTORNEY GENERAL'S OFFICE PLACING SEALS IN WINDOWS AND DOORS OF HOUSE WHERE ESCAPE TUNNEL LED VARIOUS OF SOLDIERS AND POLICE GUARDING ARE
  • Embargoed: 28th July 2015 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Mexico
  • Country: Mexico
  • Topics: General
  • Reuters ID: LVA31WJ6CJALOMBOIOFDQQJWHDT8
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Less than 48 hours after Mexico's most notorious drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, broke out of a high-security prison, security was high at the Altiplano prison that held him and Mexican authorities could be seen combing through the house where his escape tunnel led.
    On Saturday night (July 11), for the second time, the kingpin snuck out of the prison through a subterranean tunnel more than 1.5 km (1 mile) long that ended at an abandoned property near the local town, National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido told a news conference on Sunday.
    Guzman, who had bribed his way out of prison during an escape in 2001, was seen on video entering his shower area at 8:52 p.m. on Saturday (0152 GMT Sunday), then disappeared, the National Security Commission (CNS) said.
    Wanted by U.S. prosecutors and once featured in the Forbes list of billionaires, Guzman was gone by the time guards entered his cell in Altiplano prison in central Mexico, the CNS said.
    Beneath a 50-cm (20 inch) by 50-cm hole in the cell's shower area, guards found a ladder descending some 10 meters (32 feet) into the tunnel, which was about 1.7 meters (5.6 feet) high and 70-80 centimetres (28-31 inches) wide.
    Inside the passageway used for Guzman's latest escape, guards found a motorbike mounted on rails, probably used to cart away soil, Rubido said, as well as equipment to pump air into the tunnel.
    Prison workers were quickly questioned over the escape.
    The government said 30 officials from the penitentiary were being interrogated at the unit specializing in organized crime at the Attorney General's office.
    In 2001, Guzman paid guards to help him slip out of the high-security Puente Grande prison near the city of Guadalajara after a previous arrest in 1993. After eluding capture for 13 years, Guzman was arrested in Sinaloa in February 2014.
    Government officials vowed on Sunday that Guzman would be recaptured, and security forces fanned out to search roads near the prison, which is some 90 km (60 miles) west of the capital.
    Guzman was one of the world's top crime bosses, running the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, which has smuggled billions of dollars worth of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines into the United States and fought vicious turf wars with other Mexican gangs.
    The flight of Guzman, who became a legendary figure in villages scattered in the sierra where he grew up in northwestern Mexico, seriously undermines Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto's pledge to bring order to a country racked by years of gang violence.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
  • Copyright Notice: (c) Copyright Thomson Reuters 2015. Open For Restrictions - http://about.reuters.com/fulllegal.asp
  • Usage Terms/Restrictions: None
Register