On March 6th, 2016, at 4:31 am Pacific Time, while waiting for extradition to the United States, Mexican drug lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán escaped from the same Mexican prison he had July 11th, 2015. This marks his third escape from a Mexican prison.
Several guards are being interrogated, accused of helping El Chapo escape by use of a ‘removable wall.’ A small corner wall was slowly replaced with a balsa wood paneling with stucco plastering attached with hinges.
Over the past six months it was installed and made to look and feel like a legitimate cinder block wall, but with little effort would shatter if the hinges failed to swing open. With the false wall, El Chapo simply walked out of prison to a waiting Jeep that drove him to a helicopter several miles away.
The wall was put back in place by El Chapo’s as he broke out, but was left ajar just a few millimeters. An hour later, a guard noticed the discrepancy. El Chapo’s cell camera, which monitored the kingpin twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week, was hacked, repeating a loop of a sleeping El Chapo for several hours. We are told it still shows El Chapo sleeping and the technician can’t fix the camera to show a live feed.
Prison Chief Chavo Guerrero told the Mexico City Press, “This escape plot was even more calculated than his previous escape. It was very well planned. He pretty much just walked out of the prison undetected and have no idea where he is now. I think it was being planned and put in place while El Chapo was on the run several months ago, just in case he was captured and put back in the same prison. He’s a smart man with plenty of resources.”
The escape, between materials and bribes, would cost El Chapo a million dollars to execute. That is a small price to pay for a billionaires freedom.
U.S. Martials are looking for the hacker who could have recorded El Chapo sleeping for a night and be able to override the live feed without the prison monitors noticing. Several security protocols were easily bypassed by the hacker. Prison officers are investigating how the fake wall could be constructed without being detected. They assume the same hacker was able to loop the video feed of the wall so no one would see the construction.
“They definitely learned from the first two escapes. They knew exactly what to do this time,” said Guerrero. “There was no playing around. He walked out of the prison like he owned the place. We will get to the bottom of this. He will be captured and will not be allowed to escape so easily again.”
USA USA USA
The FBI is beyond angry. They expected El Chapo in their custody immediately after his capture, but have been waiting patiently for paperwork and bureaucracy to finish the extradition process.
This waiting period left time for the cartel leader to escape prison, now roaming the Mexican countryside as he has done twice before.
FBI Director James Comey was hesitant to criticize the Mexican government, but quick to call for action towards El Chapo’s apprehension. “We got lucky with the whole Sean Penn thing last time. Maybe something like that can happen again, maybe not,” said Comey. “We will lend any support to the Federalis, to work together to bring this evil man to justice.”
The FBI has asked for Guzmán‘s current extradition papers to continue its process so they can be ready when El Chapo is captured for the fourth time. This would allow him to be immediately sent to the United States and eliminate the risk of El Chapo escaping a Mexican prison for the fourth time.
