His photograph suggested the image was taken in Costa Rica, prompting local police officers to investigate whether he is hiding in the country

The world's most wanted drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman may be hiding out in Costa Rica following his dramatic escape from Mexico's maximum security Altiplano prison in July.

Costa Rican authorities are now investigating whether the boss of the Sinaloa Cartel secretly fled to the Central American nation after his son appeared to accidentally reveal his hideout on Twitter.

While cocksure 29-year-old Jesus Alfredo Guzman Salazar regularly uses social media to boast about his father's prison bust and share new images of the fugitive, it appears he failed to disable a smart phone feature that automatically tags where an image was taken when it is posted online.

Hiding: The photograph is clearly designed to taunt Mexican authorities who have faced ridicule since El Chapo's escape. What Salazar (centre) probably hadn't realised is that the picture also published location data (circled) to each of his 149,000 Twitter followers

Most wanted man: El Chapo's escape in June humiliated Mexican authorities who had attempted to make every effort to avoid the embarrassment of the drug boss escaping yet another maximum security prison.

The image in question shows Salazar sitting at a dinner table with two other men whose faces have been obscured by large comedy emoticons .

Despite this, the mustache and build of the man on the left of the image has a strong resemblance to El Chapo himself and Salazar captioned the image: 'August here, you already know with whom'.

While the photograph is clearly designed to taunt Mexican authorities who have faced ridicule since the drug lord's escape, what Salazar probably hadn't realised is that the picture also published location data to each of his 149,000 Twitter followers.

Beneath the image the words 'Costa Rica' can be clearly seen. This location tagging typically occurs when the user has failed to switch off the auto-tagging function on Twitter's smart phone app.

The tweet has been enough to lead Costa Rica’s Judicial Investigative Police to announce they are now looking into the possibility that El Chapo is hiding in the country but added that the post is the first evidence they have received to suggest that this could be the case.

What the picture does show, however, is that wherever they are, Salazar and Guzman himself appear to be hiding in plain sight, brazenly visiting busy restaurants and taking group photographs.

If the notorious drug dealers are indeed in Costa Rica, it is clearly a place they feel relaxed about the possibility of being arrested - despite the huge rewards available to any possible informant.

On the lam: Sinaloa Cartel leader El Chapo has been on the run since July, when he escaped from a maximum-security prison in Altiplano

Guzman has been taunting the world on Twitter since his daring escape, vowing to escape again if caught

When not posting taunting messages and photos on social media, Salazar and two of his brothers run the Sinaloa drug cartel - one of the world's most feared organised crime syndicates.

It is their father who remains at the head of the group, now more than ever following his escape from prison in June - the second time he has vanished from a Mexican maximum security facility.

El Chapo was first jailed after being extradited from Guatemala in 1993 and escaped from a maximum security prison in 2001. 13 years later, an international manhunt led to his arrest in the seaside resort town of Mazatlan in February last year.

Mexican authorities have announced a $3.8million reward for El Chapo, who is believed to have a net worth of about $1billion - the vast majority raised from drug sales.

Last week the U.S. added a further $5 million to that reward and set up a special 'tip line' for anybody wanting to give information about the drug boss.

At the time acting head of America's Drug Enforcement Administration, Chuck Rosenberg, said he believed Guzman is still in Mexico, probably hiding in his home state of Sinaloa. He did, however, acknowledge that the elusive Guzman could be hiding anywhere.

Entryway: Guzman took out a 20-by-20 inch grill in the shower floor of his cell and climbed down a 32ft shaft into the complex tunnel system

A motorcycle adapted to a rail used by Guzman to move through a tunnel through beneath the prison

Seeking leads: The US has set up a tip line for Americans and Mexicans to give information on El Chapo

EL CHAPO'S COLLECTION OF LUXURY CARS AND MILITARY-GRADE WEAPONS ARE SEIZED More than 30 luxury cars and motorcycles were confiscated from alleged members of El Chapo's cartel in his hometown of Culiacan, Sinaloa, Mexico, as the drug lord still remains on the run, according to the Mexican Navy. The 33 vehicles - including a Dodge Viper, a fully-loaded Jeep Sahara and a Ducati - were confiscated in a series of raids by the Mexican government over the span of a week. Thirteen military-grade weapons were also confiscated during the raids in the Mexican state's capital, which serves as the home base of the all-powerful Sinaloa Cartel. In one of the raids, the Mexican Navy took part in a high-speed chase after the driver of a vehicle tried to run down security with his car, the Mexican Navy said in a news release. Advertisement

El Chapo's escape in June humiliated Mexican authorities who had attempted to make every effort to avoid the embarrassment of the drug boss escaping yet another maximum security prison.

Mexican lawmakers have admitted that at least 18 minutes passed before anyone at the maximum-security Altipiano jail raised the alarm.

This raises the possibility that El Chapo could have bribed prison employees to turn a blind eye to his escape in the same way he'd done in his 2001 escape.

CCTV footage from inside the cell revealed that Guzman took out a 20-by-20 inch grill in the shower floor of his cell and climbed down a 32ft shaft into a complex tunnel system that built below.

The tunnel - which was air conditioned and even had a motorbike on tracks to hasten his escape - would have taken at least a year to build with four miners working 10-hour shifts - with digging and drilling going on under the guards' noses.

The prison is also fitted with censors which are meant to detect drilling but officials insist the had no idea something was amiss.