Mexican drug kingpin 'El Chapo' escapes from prison (again)

Show Caption Hide Caption Notorious Mexican drug lord 'El Chapo' escapes again It's the second time Joaquin Guzman escaped from prison. Last time, he spent more than a decade on the run before being caught again.

A notorious Mexican drug kingpin who escaped once before from prison — and spent more than a decade on the lam — has done it again.

This time, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman disappeared down a hole near his cell and walked nearly a mile underground to freedom, triggering a massive manhunt Sunday.

Guzman wielded so much power as head of the Sinaloa drug cartel that the Chicago Crime Commission called him Public Enemy No. 1, a label applied to gangster Al Capone in 1930.

Guzman, 56, escaped late Saturday from Mexico's Altiplano maximum-security prison through a specially built, lighted and ventilated tunnel that ended in a half-built house in a rural farm field near the prison.

The elaborate escape route, built allegedly without the detection of authorities, allowed Guzman to do what Mexican officials promised would never happen again: slip out of one of the country's most secure penitentiaries.

"This represents without a doubt an affront to the Mexican state," President Enrique Peña Nieto said Sunday 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."

Eighteen employees from Altiplano, 55 miles west of Mexico City, were being questioned, Mexico's Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido said.

After Guzman's first escape in 2001, from Puente Grande prison, he spent more than a decade on the run, rising to lead the Sinaloa cartel, which smuggles large quantities of drugs into the United States. The cartel is a key player in a drug war that has ravaged parts of Mexico for years and cost thousands of lives.

Guzman escaped that time with the help of prison guards, who possibly hid him in a laundry cart. He was recaptured in February 2014 and held at Altiplano since then.

"We share the government of Mexico's concern regarding the escape," U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said Sunday in a statement. "The U.S. government stands ready to work with our Mexican partners to provide any assistance that may help support his swift recapture."

Flights near Altiplano were suspended Sunday, and roads and highways in the surrounding areas were being searched by security officials.

Guatemala's Interior Ministry says a special task force of police and soldiers is watching the border with Mexico for any sign of Guzman. He fled to Guatemala at least once before and had an earlier arrest there in 1993.

U.S. officials had sought Guzman's extradition since his 2014 recapture. Several U.S. attorneys' offices have indicted him on trafficking charges, including in Chicago, where several of his lieutenants have been prosecuted and imprisoned. The Chicago Crime Commission, a non-governmental body, had planned to formally restore the "Public Enemy No. 1" title to Guzman this week, said John Pastuovic, a spokesman.

A former administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration said he was dismayed by the bold getaway. "It is a shock that the most dangerous cartel leader in the world has escaped," Peter Bensinger said Sunday. "He ought to have been housed in an American prison."

Gal Pissetzky, a Chicago defense attorney who has represented suspected drug traffickers in U.S. courts nationwide, said he wasn't surprised by Guzman's escape, given Mexican prisons' reputation. "I'm surprised he stayed locked up in there as long as he did," Pissetzky said.

Mexico's National Security Commission said Sunday that Guzman disappeared from Altiplano shortly before 9 p.m. on Saturday after going for a shower. He escaped through a 20-inch hole that connected to a tunnel that was more than 1,500 yards long and had ventilation and stairs, Rubido said. A motorcycle that was used to remove dirt was found, he added.

"We may never find him again," said Michael Vigil, a retired Drug Enforcement Administration chief of international operations.

Vigil suggested that Guzman will resume command of the cartel unless captured within 48 hours.

The Chicago Crime Commission planned to formally restore the title to Guzman this week, said John Pastuovic, a spokesman for the non-governmental body.