Mexico lost the world’s most powerful drug dealer…again
Public Enemy #1 on the run
This weekend, the most dangerous drug cartel leader in the world escaped from one of Mexico’s most secure prison facilities…for the second time.
Named “Public Enemy #1” by the Chicago Crime Commission, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has earned his reputation. He is the leader and kingpin of the infamous Sinaloa drug cartel, which specializes in the trafficking of heroin and cocaine. This is the second time El Chapo has managed to escape a Mexican maximum security prison. In 2001, Guzman escaped another facility while serving a 20 year sentence for drug trafficking.
El Chapo managed to escape the Altiplano prison via a tunnel that connected the outside world to the shower in his cell. The tunnel stretched for a mile, and was allegedly built and equipped with lighting, ventilation, and a motorcycle without raising any flags with local authorities.
More via Fox News:
“This represents without a doubt an affront to the Mexican state,” said President Enrique Pena Nieto, speaking during a previously scheduled trip to France. “But I also have confidence in the institutions of the Mexican state … that they have the strength and determination to recapture this criminal.”
If Guzman is not caught immediately, the drug lord will likely be back in full command and control of the Sinaloa Cartel in 48 hours, said Michael S. Vigil, a retired U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief of international operations.
“We may never find him again,” he said. “All the accolades that Mexico has received in their counterdrug efforts will be erased by this one event.”
Thirty employees from various part of the Altiplano prison, 55 miles (90 kilometers) west of Mexico City, have been taken in for questioning, according to the federal Attorney General’s Office.
A massive manhunt is underway, but Guzman’s escape will have far reaching consequences for Mexico’s political scene, and relationship with the US:
News that he’d somehow managed to break out again drew sharp condemnation at home from Peña Nieto’s political opponents and abroad from U.S. officials, who’d pushed for his extradition.
“One would have assumed that he would have been the most watched criminal in the world, and apparently, that just didn’t happen. This is a huge embarrassment for the Mexican government,” said Ana Maria Salazar, a security analyst and former Pentagon counternarcotics official. “Obviously it’s going to raise a lot of questions as to what’s happening with the Mexican criminal justice system.”
We’ll keep you posted on the status of the search.
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Comments
“Once is unfortunate,
Twice looks like carelessness.”
Initially I was amazed that a tunnel that long and well made was made without anyone noticing. Then after I calmed down and thought a moment it started to make sense. The cartels have been digging tunnels under the border for years to smuggle drugs into the U.S. It’s something that they’ve gotten rather good at so really it should be no surprise that they managed to pull off an operation like this to smuggle out of prison one of their top dogs.
Just like with the New York prison escape, and as with “sanctuary cities” and the Federal government, you don’t have this kind of thing happening without the collusion of those entrusted to enforce the law.
Absolutely correct, sir.
And just think of the opportunities that await him now that he is free to move to a sanctuary city near you or I. And even if he is caught by LE, sentenced and jailed, ICE won’t touch him. If he plays his cards right, maybe issue more threats to GOP candidates here in the US, Obama can commute his sentence as he has for other dope dealers recently.
C’mon on now. Is anyone really that surprised a man who has more money that 90% of the entire Mexican population escaped? He probably hired low paid prison guards to contract the building of that tunnel.
They lost him? No, I don’t think so.
He did not escape. He was set free by his so-conspirators in office. Mexico is a cesspool that is draining into the U.S.
Oh! Oh! I seen dis movie!
He should suffer fatal bullet wounds in the attempt to recapture him.
He has sent out tweets threatening Trump!
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3159344/There-s-no-jail-big-midget-Mexico-s-billion-dollar-drugs-lord-gloats-Twitter-escaping-prison-shower-block-tunnel.html
Why would he threaten Trump? Because Trump is wrong, and Mexico sends us its best? Or because Trump is correct, and our effectively open border has allowed the cartels to establish pipelines into this country for their drugs, guns, and violence, pipelines that would be threatened by real border security and enforcement of immigration laws? Nothing could be better for the Trump candidacy than a threat by El Chapo; it shows Trump is right and in a way that no other candidate is willing to address.
Because it is good for him for others not to distinguish between Mexicans.
Trump: *gulp*
Naw. More like, “I’ll see your bounty on me, and raise you $100 million”.
Killing someone like Trump is exactly what cartel El Chapos could and might do. Double the security, Donny!
I meant to add – how much do you think it cost to bribe his way out of prison this time? A week’s cocaine sales? Two weeks?
This is quite different from the New York State escape.
In New York, they dug a tunnel out. (and actually used mostly pre-existing pipes)
In Mexico, they dug a tunnel in.
A tunnel that ended with a ladder that went up into a shower in his cell.
What I’m wondering is, did a Mexican drug gang arrange for the escape of those two murderers in New York, because one of them had gotten a job with them? (if so, the plan as to how to Mexico wasn’t worked out too well. Also if so, only the person who was killed knew the details of the plot.)
If anyone in an official capacity in Mexico was bribed here it wasn’t people who were being watched – it was others who might not have been thought of as important – someone who tell them things about the prison, and perhaps someone who influened prison conditions, or choice of the exact location where to put him.
Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman didn’t rely on anyone not talking (well, except for the tunnel diggers maybe)