How Many Times Did El Chapo Escape From Prison
El Chapo: How Mexico's drug kingpin fell victim to his own legend. 'When he escaped from prison in 2015, he probably could have run away to the mountains and just lived,' Mr Century said.
- Infamous drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who daringly escaped prison on July 11, utilized a tunnel leading from the only “supermax” maximum-security pri.
- July 2015 - Escaped Altiplano maximum security prison through a secret tunnel January 2016 - Captured a third time in a bloody raid at a home in Los Mochis, Sinaloa, Mexico.
Drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has been recaptured seven months after he escaped from prison, Mexican authorities announced Friday.
But this isn’t the first time El Chapo, leader of the Sinaloa cartel, has been on the lam. The drug kingpin has a long history of capture, escape and recapture.
Here are some major dates in Guzman’s timeline (with some information from the Associated Press):
- June 10, 1993: Mexico announces Guzman’s first capture in Guatemala. But even after Guzman was imprisoned, “He continued to manage his affairs from prison with scarcely a hitch,” writes Robert Saviano in his book ZeroZeroZero. “The maximum security prison Puente Grande, where he was transferred in 1995, became his new base of operations,”
- Jan. 19, 2001: With the help of bribed guards, Guzman escapes from his top-security prison. Saviano describes the escape: “One of them—Francisco Camberos Rivera, known as El Chito, or the Silent One—opened the door to El Chapo’s cell and helped him climb into a cart of dirty laundry. They headed down unguarded hallways and through wide-open electronic doors to the inner parking lot, where only one guard was on duty. El Chapo jumped out of the cart and leaped into the trunk of a Chevrolet Monte Carlo.”
- Feb. 22, 2014: El Chapo is captured in Mazatlan after hiding in tunnels for days. The success was touted as a huge win for authorities, who by then had deemed Guzman the “most powerful drug trafficker in the world.”
- July 11, 2015: Guzman escapes through a tunnel from Mexico’s top-security prison. You can see the path he took to escape here.
- Jan. 8, 2016: He is once again re-captured in Los Mochis, Sinaloa after a shootout with Mexican marines. Five people were killed and one marine was wounded in the fight.
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For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.The Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has escaped a high-security Mexican prison for the second time, this time through a one-mile tunnel.
Here are six things to know about “El Chapo.”
It’s not the first time he’s escaped from prison
Guzman was arrested in February 2014, in what was heralded as a huge win for authorities who had deemed him the “most powerful drug trafficker in the world.” First arrested in 1993 in Guatemala and then extradited to Mexico, El Chapo made a legendary escape in 2001 from a maximum-security prison in Jalisco, allegedly via laundry cart.
Little is known about his childhood
As a boy, Guzman sold oranges and later dropped out of school to work alongside his father, who regularly beat him and his siblings. A Wall Street Journal profile notes that the elder Guzman may have worked on poppy farms, introducing his son to the drug trade early on.
His nickname “El Chapo” translates to “Shorty”
Guzman’s height measures at just 5 feet, six inches tall.
He came to power in 2003
It happened after the arrest of his rival, Osiel Cardenas. His cartel totaled $3 billion a year in revenue at one time, and he was named Public Enemy No. 1 in Chicago because of the drug trade’s contribution to the city’s gang problem. Guzman joined the likes of Al Capone in Windy City police circles thanks to his Sinaloa Cartel’s broad reach: According to Art Bilek of the Chicago Crime Commission, the 506 people killed in 2012 from gun violence in the city could be traced to El Chapo’s involvement in the drug and gang wars in the city.
El Chapo’s business interests are diverse
Previous cartel leaders focused purely on exporting cocaine, according to Forbes. Guzman diversified his portfolio to include marijuana, heroin, and methamphetamine. He also capitalized on growing drug markets in Asia and Europe to continue building his empire.
How Many Times Did El Chapo Escape From Prison
Guzman is considered responsible for the deaths of about 34,000 people
That body count is according to a Forbes profile. When then-Mexican President Felipe Calderòn came to power in 2006, army and cartel clashes were especially violent, in a bloodbath that saw both the Mexican military and rival cartels along with Sinaloa suffer the deadliest clashes in Mexican history.