One minute Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán was locked up in a Mexican prison, pacing the floor of his small cell. The next, he was gone.
Guzmán, infamous leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, pulled off his elaborate escape this weekend from the Altiplano maximum security prison with a casual cool, as seen in new footage released by the Mexican government Tuesday.
CCTV footage from inside the prison shows the final moments Guzmán spent inside his cell on Saturday evening, before pulling off his epic escape from behind bars. He is seen walking behind a low wall in the shower and toilet area, and then he is gone.
Another clip taken in the prison after authorities realized Guzmán escaped shows the small square hole cut into the shower floor.
Mexico’s national security commissioner, Monte Alejandro Rubido, released the footage on Tuesday, and described what investigators know so far about Guzmán’s elaborate escape.
The drug kingpin managed to slip out of his prison cell via a 32-foot deep tunnel, which had been dug into the drainage area of a shower in his cell. That tunnel led from his cell to another tunnel, which ran away from the prison, and exited underground nearly 1 mile away into a nearby construction site.
Rubido said Tuesday that up to the moment Guzman disappeared, his pacing was considered normal for someone who lives in about 5 square meters (60 square feet) with only an hour a day outside for exercise. But there was nothing usual about Guzman’s escape: He lifted a slab of concrete floor, and descended into a warm and humid man-made underworld, where a modified motorcycle rigged to two carts on two steel rails whisked him away.
A motorcycle adapted to a rail sits in the tunnel under the half-built house where according to authorities, drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán made his escape from the Altiplano maximum security prison in Almoloya, west of Mexico City, Tuesday, July 14, 2015.
Image: Eduardo Verdugo/Associated Press
Once through the tunnel, Guzmán escaped into the floor of a half-built house.
Guzmán, who had been on the run for 13 years prior to his February 2014 arrest, was once again a free man.
Last year, U.S. and Mexican officials were reveling in his capture, hailing it as an achievement in Mexico’s battle against drug cartels. But just one month after he was locked up, Guzmán and his associates on the outside were already planning his escape.
Documents from the U.S. Drug Enforcement Agency (DEA) reveal that agents first got information about plans to spring Guzmán from Altiplano in March 2014.
A journalist reports from the exit of the tunnel that, according to authorities, drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman used to escape from the Altiplano maximum security prison in Almoloya, west of Mexico City, Tuesday, July 14, 2015.
Image: Eduardo Verdugo/Associated Press
Intelligence officials had several pieces of information indicating that Guzmán was planning an escape long before he slipped out of the maximum security prison, although none that pointed directly to this particular elaborate plan.
In addition to the crimes Guzmán was imprisoned for in Mexico, he faces multiple drug trafficking and organized crime charges in the United States.
Additional reporting by The Associated Press
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