First he ducks into the shower of his prison cell, fully
clothed. Then he leans down, but it's not clear what the infamous drug lord is
doing; the short shower wall blocks him from the surveillance camera.
Seconds later,
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman gets back up, sits down on his cell bed and
changes his shoes. He goes back into the shower and bends down again behind the
wall -- but never resurfaces.
Guzman, Mexico's
most notorious drug kingpin, slipped through a hole under the shower and
escaped through a mile-long tunnel to freedom, authorities said.
And the newly
released closed-circuit video shows how calmly and easily he did it, even
within the confines of his cramped narrow cell.
Mexican Interior
Minister Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong said Guzman's cell was videotaped 24 hours a
day. But the surveillance had two blind spots for privacy -- the toilet and the
shower.
Guzman didn't
just evade the cameras; he also sidestepped another security measure with
alarming ease.
Guzman had a
bracelet that monitored his every move, the interior minister said. But he left
the bracelet behind before he crawled into the tunnel.
'The hunt is back on'
Where Guzman could be hiding out now is anyone's guess.
Investigators on
both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border are searching for signs of the fugitive
drug lord. But it's no easy task, a top Drug Enforcement Administration
official said.
"The cartel
headed by Chapo is probably the most well-financed, vicious, criminal entity we
have ever seen, with unlimited resources both to bribe, corrupt and to
transport," Deputy DEA Administrator Jack Riley said. "So our job in
this particular case, as much as it was over year ago when we captured him, is
to use every legal tool we can, cooperate with our counterparts, and hit the
ground. The hunt is back on."
The United
States and Mexico are exchanging intelligence -- including details from
informants -- in the manhunt, and the United States is providing technical
support, a Mexican official said.
Reports claiming
authorities from the two countries aren't working together simply aren't true,
Riley said.
"Chapo is
hoping and planning on the fact that the good guys, the cops on both sides of
the border, don't talk to each other, don't connect the dots," Riley said.
"And I'm here to tell you we're doing that better now than we have ever
done it. And if I was him, I'd be looking over my shoulder."
Prison
officials fired, dozens more questioned
It's likely prison workers helped Guzman
break out, the interior minister told reporters. Osorio Chong said he has
already fired the prison director and other prison officials.
At least 49 people have been questioned in connection with the Saturday
escape, a Mexican official said.
Mexican
authorities announced a $3.8 million reward
for information leading to Guzman's capture.
They released
what they said was a recent picture of Guzman, showing him with a shaved head
and face -- but without his trademark mustache.
How he
did it
Guzman took a sophisticated route during
his escape, officials believe: a
tunnel complete with lighting, ventilation and even a modified motorcycle on
tracks "that was likely used
to remove dirt during the excavation and transport the tools for the dig,"
Mexican National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido said.
The tunnel began
with a 50-by-50-centimeter (20-by-20-inch) opening inside the shower of
Guzman's cell, Rubido said. The concrete chiseled out of the floor was left
against the cell wall.
The tunnel
stretched for about a mile and ended inside a half-built house.
It's likely the
Sinaloa cartel had spent years infiltrating the country's prison system, a
Mexican official told CNN. Whoever helped in the plot likely had the
architectural plans for the prison that pointed them toward the shower area,
the official said.
And this wasn't
the first time.
Nicknamed
"Shorty" for his height, Guzman already had pulled off one elaborate
escape from a maximum-security prison. In 2001, he managed to break free while
reportedly hiding in a laundry cart. It took authorities 13 years to catch him
-- closing in as he was sleeping at a Mexican beach resort.
El Chapo's
escape: No light at the end of his tunnel
'A complete savage'
The Sinaloa cartel moves drugs by land,
air and sea, including cargo aircraft, private aircraft, buses, fishing vessels
and even submarines, the U.S. Justice Department has said.
The cartel has
become so powerful that Forbes
magazine listed Guzman in its
2009 list of "self-made" billionaires. Guzman's estimated fortune at
the time was $1 billion.
Guzman has been
a nightmare for both sides of the border. He reigns over a multibillion-dollar
global drug empire that supplied much of the marijuana, cocaine and heroin sold
on the streets of the United States.
Chicago has labeled
him the city's "Public Enemy No. 1."
And Riley, who spent years fighting Guzman's cartel there, said
he's personally angered over the escape.
"I spent
nearly five years fighting what he was doing to the city, what he was doing to
the communities by bringing heroin in and working a business relationship with
street gangs," he said. "For me, personally, it was a milestone to
see him in jail. And when I got the call at 2:30 in the morning last Saturday,
I about passed out."
But no matter
what it takes, he said, investigators will find a way to capture him.
"I am sure
his security is probably second to none in the country. But that's not going to
deter us. It didn't deter us the first time," Riley said. "This guy
is going to be back in jail."
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