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| Joaquín Guzmán Loera, Mexican Drug Kingpin, Escapes Prison | Joaquín Guzmán Loera, Mexican Drug Kingpin, Escapes Prison |
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| Joaquín Guzmán Loera, one of the world’s most infamous drug lords, escaped from his cell in a maximum-security prison through a tunnel dug from the shower, Mexican security officials said on Sunday, creating an acute embarrassment for the government, which had trumpeted his capture less than two years ago as a crucial victory in the long and bloody war against the narcotics trade. | Joaquín Guzmán Loera, one of the world’s most infamous drug lords, escaped from his cell in a maximum-security prison through a tunnel dug from the shower, Mexican security officials said on Sunday, creating an acute embarrassment for the government, which had trumpeted his capture less than two years ago as a crucial victory in the long and bloody war against the narcotics trade. |
| The escape, which was discovered late Saturday, was the second time that Mr. Guzmán — known as El Chapo, or Shorty — had broken out of jail. In 2001, he escaped in a laundry cart, the beginning of his rise from a powerful cartel lieutenant into Mexico’s biggest drug lord. | The escape, which was discovered late Saturday, was the second time that Mr. Guzmán — known as El Chapo, or Shorty — had broken out of jail. In 2001, he escaped in a laundry cart, the beginning of his rise from a powerful cartel lieutenant into Mexico’s biggest drug lord. |
| Officials said that he had escaped through an opening measuring about 20 inches by 20 inches that was dug from his shower. It linked up with a broader, more elaborate tunnel that was about a mile long and about 30 feet deep. | Officials said that he had escaped through an opening measuring about 20 inches by 20 inches that was dug from his shower. It linked up with a broader, more elaborate tunnel that was about a mile long and about 30 feet deep. |
| Mr. Guzmán was being held in Mexico’s most secure prison, the Altiplano, about a 90-minute drive west from the capital. The police were deployed to watch all the roads around the area, and the nearby Toluca airport was closed. | Mr. Guzmán was being held in Mexico’s most secure prison, the Altiplano, about a 90-minute drive west from the capital. The police were deployed to watch all the roads around the area, and the nearby Toluca airport was closed. |
| The breakout comes as a major embarrassment for the government of President Enrique Peña Nieto, which has succeeded in capturing a number of drug bosses along with Mr. Guzmán but has faced the rise of new criminal groups that have emerged as larger groups have splintered. | |
| Mr. Guzmán was last seen shortly before 9 p.m. on Saturday on the prison’s video cameras when he entered the shower in his cell. After he did not come out, guards entered his cell only to find it empty. | |
| The tunnel that Mr. Guzmán used to reach freedom was an elaborate construction, tall enough for him to walk upright and about two to two and a half feet wide, Mexico’s security commissioner, Monte Alejandro Rubido, said in a news conference on Sunday morning. | The tunnel that Mr. Guzmán used to reach freedom was an elaborate construction, tall enough for him to walk upright and about two to two and a half feet wide, Mexico’s security commissioner, Monte Alejandro Rubido, said in a news conference on Sunday morning. |
| No detail was spared. There was tubing for ventilation, lighting and a motorcycle on rails that Mr. Rubido said was most likely used to transport tools into the tunnel and haul out dirt. Along its course, the tunnel was equipped with oxygen tanks, fuel canisters and construction materials including wooden beams. | No detail was spared. There was tubing for ventilation, lighting and a motorcycle on rails that Mr. Rubido said was most likely used to transport tools into the tunnel and haul out dirt. Along its course, the tunnel was equipped with oxygen tanks, fuel canisters and construction materials including wooden beams. |
| It opened onto a construction site in the neighborhood of Santa Juanita in the municipality of Almoloya de Juárez. | It opened onto a construction site in the neighborhood of Santa Juanita in the municipality of Almoloya de Juárez. |
| Eighteen prison employees were taken into custody for questioning, the authorities said. | Eighteen prison employees were taken into custody for questioning, the authorities said. |
| Experts who follow the drug underworld were left dumbfounded and predicted the escape could bolster American demands to extradite top crime figures, particularly when United States law enforcement personnel have played major roles in many cases, and not without personal risk. | |
| “It’s shocking, embarrassing, a huge blow, almost everything under the sun,” said Eric Olson, a scholar at the Mexico Institute of the Woodrow Wilson Center who follows crime trends in Latin America. “It is almost Mexico’s worst nightmare, and I suspect many in U.S. law enforcement are apoplectic right now.” | |
| “Mexico is going to be under increasing pressure from the U.S. in terms of extraditing these top people,” he said. | |
| Mexico has long struggled to reshape its police forces and root out corruption, but Mr. Olson said the prison system often takes a back seat as “the last thing in the chain of law enforcement.” | |
| Still, he said, it was striking that Mexican officials apparently did not take measures to prevent a tunnel from being dug, considering Mr. Guzmán’s extensive use of them. Or worse, he added, “it is an indication of the ability of someone with his economic power and network to corrupt and buy the silence from people, including obviously the people at the prison itself and law enforcement authorities.” | |
| Days before Mr. Guzmán’s capture last year, Mexican marines and American law enforcement officers raided the home of his ex-wife only to find that he had fled though a secret door beneath a bathtub that led to a network of tunnels and sewer canals that connected to six other houses in Culiacán, the capital of Sinaloa, the state where his cartel was based. | |
| Mr. Guzmán was finally captured at an apartment he used in the Pacific seaside resort city of Mazatlán. | Mr. Guzmán was finally captured at an apartment he used in the Pacific seaside resort city of Mazatlán. |
| Before his capture, Mr. Guzmán presided over a vast network that smuggled cocaine and marijuana into the United States and reached as far as Europe and Africa. | Before his capture, Mr. Guzmán presided over a vast network that smuggled cocaine and marijuana into the United States and reached as far as Europe and Africa. |
| He faces indictments in at least seven American federal courts on charges that include narcotics trafficking and murder. In October, a new indictment in Federal District Court in Brooklyn linked him and associates to hundreds of acts of murder, assault, kidnapping and torture. | |
| In January, however, Mexico’s attorney general, Jesús Murillo Karam, told The Associated Press that Mr. Guzmán would never serve time in the United States. | |
| “I could accept extradition, but at the time that I choose. ‘El Chapo’ must stay here to complete his sentence, and then I will extradite him,” Mr. Murillo Karam said then. “So about 300 or 400 years later — it will be a while.” | “I could accept extradition, but at the time that I choose. ‘El Chapo’ must stay here to complete his sentence, and then I will extradite him,” Mr. Murillo Karam said then. “So about 300 or 400 years later — it will be a while.” |
| The United States never filed a formal extradition request, though American officials did discuss it with their Mexican counterparts, who made it clear that they would not readily give him up, American law enforcement officials said not long after Mr. Guzmán’s arrest last year. | The United States never filed a formal extradition request, though American officials did discuss it with their Mexican counterparts, who made it clear that they would not readily give him up, American law enforcement officials said not long after Mr. Guzmán’s arrest last year. |
| In a statement, Attorney General Loretta E. Lynch said, “We share the government of Mexico’s concern regarding the escape of Joaquín Guzmán Loera ‘Chapo’ from a Mexican prison.” | |
| “The U.S. government stands ready to work with our Mexican partners to provide any assistance that may help support his swift recapture,” the statement added. | |
| Mr. Guzmán’s escape this weekend occurred while Mr. Peña Nieto was in France on a state visit. | Mr. Guzmán’s escape this weekend occurred while Mr. Peña Nieto was in France on a state visit. |