Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman, known as El Chapo or “Shorty”, has broken out of a maximum security prison for the second time.
He reportedly used an elaborate 1.5km (1 mile) tunnel which opened into the shower area of his cell to escape Altiplano jail.
Guzman was last seen in the showers of the jail on Saturday. Authorities found his cell empty, and according to the Washington Post, discovered “the hatch that led by ladder down to the tunnel, which was illuminated, perforated with PVC piping for ventilation and equipped with adapted motorcycle-on-rails”.
Eighteen guards are being questioned about Guzman’s escape.
Remarkably, this is not the first time El Chapo has escaped from a top security prison – in 2001 he broke out of Puente Grande by hiding in a laundry basket after bribing prison officials.
He had been serving a sentence of more than 20 years after being arrested in Guatemala in 1993 and his recapture in 2014 was hailed as a victory for Mexico’s government, and one of U.S and Mexican authorities’ biggest victories in the “war on drugs”
During his first stint as a fugitive, Guzman transformed himself into perhaps the most powerful drug trafficker in the world. As the head of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, his fortune grew to an estimated $1 billion.
A manhunt began immediately on Saturday evening for the drug lord and authorities will definitely be hoping that it doesn’t take another two decades to find him again!
