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| 'El Chapo' escape: Mexico offers 60m peso reward for cartel leader | 'El Chapo' escape: Mexico offers 60m peso reward for cartel leader |
| (34 minutes later) | |
| The Mexican government has offered a reward of 60m pesos ($3.8m) for information leading to the capture of Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, as it revealed new details of the drug lord’s daring tunnel escape from a high-security jail. | |
| “We are talking about an enemy of society who has done great damage to Mexico,” the interior minister, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, told reporters on Monday. “There will be no let up in the efforts to recapture him.” | |
| Osorio Chong said the search for Chapo began immediately the leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel disappeared from view in the shower area of his cell at 8.52pm on Saturday. | Osorio Chong said the search for Chapo began immediately the leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel disappeared from view in the shower area of his cell at 8.52pm on Saturday. |
| He said police followed the kingpin down the hole below the shower, and into a mile-long tunnel that reached a depth of up to 60 feet. | He said police followed the kingpin down the hole below the shower, and into a mile-long tunnel that reached a depth of up to 60 feet. |
| “It was designed with sophisticated technology that allowed him to get out in a lot less time than it took the security forces to follow him,” the minister said. The ventilated passage included a motorcycle adapted to run along a rail, and emerges in a recently constructed house built on a small hill with a panoramic view of the prison and a nearby military base. | “It was designed with sophisticated technology that allowed him to get out in a lot less time than it took the security forces to follow him,” the minister said. The ventilated passage included a motorcycle adapted to run along a rail, and emerges in a recently constructed house built on a small hill with a panoramic view of the prison and a nearby military base. |
| “The tunnel had electricity, and as he passed through it he broke the light bulbs, making the search operation more complicated,” Osorio Chong said. | “The tunnel had electricity, and as he passed through it he broke the light bulbs, making the search operation more complicated,” Osorio Chong said. |
| The minister insisted that the jail, where Chapo had been incarcerated since his arrest in February 2014, fulfilled international security criteria. | The minister insisted that the jail, where Chapo had been incarcerated since his arrest in February 2014, fulfilled international security criteria. |
| The capo, he added, also wore a localisation bracelet and was under round-the-clock surveillance, with cameras inside his cell that had just two blind spots because of human rights requirements. One of the blind spots was in the shower. The prisoner cut off his bracelet before he entered the tunnel, Osorio Chong said. | |
| “This is an extraordinary event that, of course, breaks the security protocols of any prison in the world,” the minister said. | “This is an extraordinary event that, of course, breaks the security protocols of any prison in the world,” the minister said. |
| Related: El Chapo's escape humiliates Mexican president: 'The state looks putrefied' | Related: El Chapo's escape humiliates Mexican president: 'The state looks putrefied' |
| The Sinaloa cartel leader’s successful dash for freedom has once again focused attention on corruption and collusion which are presumed to have enabled the escape. Analysts have questioned how the tunnel was excavated without raising any alarm, and how its builders reached the exact location of his shower without access to the prison plans. | The Sinaloa cartel leader’s successful dash for freedom has once again focused attention on corruption and collusion which are presumed to have enabled the escape. Analysts have questioned how the tunnel was excavated without raising any alarm, and how its builders reached the exact location of his shower without access to the prison plans. |
| The government has promised a full investigation. “Every federal, state or municipal official that participated in these events will be punished. Everybody involved in the escape will fall,” Osorio Chong said. | The government has promised a full investigation. “Every federal, state or municipal official that participated in these events will be punished. Everybody involved in the escape will fall,” Osorio Chong said. |
| During Monday night’s press conference, however, the minister insisted that the government had not been informed of at least two previous escape plans contained in Drug Enforcement Administration documents obtained by the Associated Press. | During Monday night’s press conference, however, the minister insisted that the government had not been informed of at least two previous escape plans contained in Drug Enforcement Administration documents obtained by the Associated Press. |
| “We have no, absolutely no, information about that,” he said, adding that “an element” within the DEA had told the Mexican government that they didn’t know where the information came from. | “We have no, absolutely no, information about that,” he said, adding that “an element” within the DEA had told the Mexican government that they didn’t know where the information came from. |
| Osorio Chong said that it was working closely with the US and the international community in general to boost its own extensive manhunt currently under way across Mexico, with special attention to the country’s borders. | Osorio Chong said that it was working closely with the US and the international community in general to boost its own extensive manhunt currently under way across Mexico, with special attention to the country’s borders. |
| Related: El Chapo's prison escape in memes: Mario Bros, Shawshank and, yes, Trump | Related: El Chapo's prison escape in memes: Mario Bros, Shawshank and, yes, Trump |
| With the crisis over Chapo’s deeply embarrassing escape already threatening to sour relations with with the US government, the Chicago Crime Commission announced it is restoring the capo’s status as the city’s public enemy No 1. | With the crisis over Chapo’s deeply embarrassing escape already threatening to sour relations with with the US government, the Chicago Crime Commission announced it is restoring the capo’s status as the city’s public enemy No 1. |
| The non-official body first gave the capo the title in 2013, based on its role as an important US distribution centre for his cartel’s drugs, but removed it after his capture the following year. | The non-official body first gave the capo the title in 2013, based on its role as an important US distribution centre for his cartel’s drugs, but removed it after his capture the following year. |