A tunnel of such sophistication would normally take 18 months to two years to complete, said Jim Dinkins, former head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s Homeland Security Investigations. But Guzman was behind bars barely 16 months.
Mexico’s most prized prisoner paced his cell, first to the latrine, then the shower, then the bed. At every turn around the tiny room, drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman checked the shower floor hidden by a half wall, because even jailed criminals get their privacy.
In his final sweep, Guzman sat on his bed and took off his shoes. Then he walked back to the shower, stooped behind the wall and disappeared.
It was the beginning of an escape odyssey straight out of the pages of fiction, and the media were given a peek Tuesday at the deep and sophisticated tunnel that led the leader of the Sinaloa cartel, whose illicit drug trafficking reach includes Europe and Asia, swiftly to freedom late Saturday.
On Wednesday, government officials gave media access to Guzman’s cell. He was housed in cell No. 20 in the Altiplano prison’s highest security wing below ground level. Twenty-two steel doors, most opening only when the previous one is closed, stood between Guzman and the outside. So he chose another exit.
The square of concrete in his shower appeared to have been punched out, rather than cut or chiseled. It was relatively thin, just three or four inches in thickness. It did not include rebar, but rather some thin wire.
Speaking to reporters outside the warehouse where the tunnel exited, leftist Sen. Alejandro Encinas criticized the prison’s construction standards.
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