Mexican soldiers 'cornered' drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman in a mountainous region in Sinaloa, Mexico, after his cell phone was found and tracked by US drug enforcement agents, according to reports.

Authorities believe they located the notorious cartel boss last week, four months after his incredible escape from prison.

Law enforcement sources told NBC News that US agents were able to pinpoint Guzman's phone and traced it to the Sierra Madre mountain range, where they believed he was hiding out at a ranch.

Mexican soldiers then stormed the location, but reportedly found only the phone and some clothes.

They have then shut off 13 communities from Jesus Maria – 30 miles north of the state's capital Culiacan – to the nearby states of Durango and Chihuahua, in order to search the area.

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Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman - seen here during his arrest in February 2014 - was located by US agents last week in the Sierra Madre mountain range, but a search of the area found nothing but his phone and clothes

Reports have emerged that Mexican soldiers 'cornered' drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman in a mountainous region in Sinaloa last week after his cell phone was found and traced by US drug enforcement agents. Pictured here are Mexican marine troops on a marijuana bust in the same region in 2009

Hundreds of troops are said to have flooded the area and many locals fled their homes.

However the search for the crime boss has shown up nothing since.

Guzman’s cartel is in control of the vast northwest region, which is used to grow marijuana, The Mirror reported.

There are also tunnels into the United States, according to the newspaper.

Earlier today it was revealed that loud hammering was audible in Guzman's prison cell where accomplices tunneled inside to spring him in July, but guards failed to act, according to recordings released by broadcaster Televisa on Wednesday.

Grainy video footage broadcast by Televisa revealed Guzman turned up the volume on a televisual device by his bed to drown out the noise as his helpers hammered a hole through the floor under the shower, the only blind spot in the cell.

The government, which was severely embarrassed by the escape, had previously shown some of the same CCTV footage of the minutes before Guzman disappeared down the hole and escaped the maximum-security prison through a mile-long tunnel.

However, unlike Televisa, the government did not supply the accompanying audio of loud banging sounds that could be heard beneath the din of the Saturday-night TV show playing in Guzman's cell as it was breached.

New footage: A video has revealed there were hammering sounds several minutes before El Chapo escaped from his prison cell through a tunnel on July 11, with the TV turned up really high to drown out the drilling

Bust at work: A still of the the security footage of the Image Monitoring Center, allegedly taken four minutes before Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzmán escaped, shows some of the guards leaving their stations

Media reports had previously said the noise of the jailbreak could be heard, but no audio had been broadcast until now. It was not clear why the government had not done so.

A spokesman for federal prosecutors could not immediately confirm whether the new audio was genuine.

Televisa also showed concurrent footage of what it said was the control center meant to be monitoring the prisoners in the Altiplano penitentiary not far from Mexico City.

Several people were shown watching their screens but apparently failing to notice or ignoring what was happening in Guzman's cell.

When Guzman disappears into the tunnel in the floor of his cell's shower, there is no visible reaction in the control room.

Twenty-five minutes pass before two officers gather in front of screens and talk.

Almost 30 minutes pass before guards appear outside the cell.

However, it was not possible to see what was showing on the screens of the staff in the control room.

Officers who were supposed to be guarding Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman (pictured) were reportedly watching solitaire when he escaped

The government has so far arrested 34 people over the jailbreak, including a man suspected of being a pilot who flew Guzman away from the site after his escape.

The interior ministry said shortly after Guzman's jailbreak that it could not have been possible without the collusion of guards and other officials, but questions remain about the full extent of cooperation the kingpin received.

The CCTV footage on Televisa showed that guards took more than 20 minutes to check his cell after he broke out, and waited a few more before entering and checking the escape hole.

Guzman, boss of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, was locked up after his capture by security forces in northwestern Mexico in February 2014.

The jailbreak was his second, as he had previously escaped from prison in 2001

Last week it was reported the guards were actually playing solitaire while El Chapo made his escape.

Security officers Carlos Sanches Garcia and Jose Daniel Aureoles Tabares originally claimed that their computers froze and by the time they had rebooted them the Mexican kingpin had vanished.

But now a judge has said that a security video reviewed in court shows that this was 'impossible' and were probably turned off, according Mexican newspaper El Universal.

It's alleged that the video shows the pair were in fact playing solitaire at Almoloya prison while sounds of hammering and voices coming from Guzman's cell could be heard, the newspaper added.

According to Garcia and Tabares' statements, at 8.48pm - four minutes before his escape - their screen froze and they made nearly 30 phone calls to the prison's Image Monitoring Center but couldn't get through.

A technical expert had concluded that it was not possible for the security footage to freeze on screen and they actually only made three phone calls to prison staff.

A still from the footage from the office where the federal agents were watching Guzman reportedly shows that multiple computer screens were switched off as they played the computer game.

The article also states that the video highlighted other delays, including that it took guards 18 minutes to reach his cell and that a 'red alert', which locks down the prison and alerts a nearby military garrison, was only activated at midnight.

Guzman escaped from his prison cell through a 50cm by 50cm hole in his shower and through an elaborate series of underground tunnels on July 11, this year.

A CCTV image of Mexican drug kingpin Guzman on the moment of his escape at Almoloya prison on July 11

The 50cm by 50cm tunnel that he crawled through to make his escape. Meanwhile his guards claimed their computers froze when they were supposed to be watching him

A motorcycle adapted to a rail sits in the mile-long tunnel where authorities say Guzman made his escape

His audacious escape saw him dash through the mile-long tunnel system, which led to a building under construction next to the prison - from where he collected clothes left for him by his conspirators.

The sophisticated tunnel contained air vents, electric lights, emergency oxygen tanks - and even a motorbike on rails to speed his escape.

The incident has been a huge embarrassment for Mexican president Enrique Pena Nieto, especially given the presviour escape of El Chapo.

Critics said Pena Nieto should have handed over Guzman 'to US law enforcement officials given Mexico's past record with the capo'.

The government had resisted doing so, citing national sovereignty, but since his jailbreak has appeared to change its stance on extradition.

At the start of the month Mexico extradited two high-ranking alleged drug lords to the United States - the most prominent to be handed over since Guzman's escape.

The two men, Edgar 'La Barbie' Valdez and Gulf Cartel capo Jorge Costilla, were among 13 defendants wanted for various violent crimes and drug trafficking-related offenses.