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Still on the run ... a February 2014 pile photo of Mexican drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman. Picture: AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo Source: AP
A FEDERAL judge in Mexico has opened a court proceeding against three prison employees on charges they aided in the escape of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo†Guzman.
In a statement, the Federal Judiciary Council said the prosecution would proceed against seven originally arrested in relation to Guzman’s July 11 escape from a maximum-security prison.
It said prosecutors showed there was sufficient evidence that the employees assisted Guzman’s escape through a 1.6km-long tunnel.
Elaborate escape ... the tunnel where Guzman made his escape from the Altiplano maximum security prison on July 16. Picture: AP Photo/Marco Ugarte Source: AP
It described the employees as the person in charge of the prison’s video surveillance control centre and two guards.
There were inconsistencies in the supervisor’s statements and there was no explanation for why the guards did not answer the telephone in their module.
The Council also said that, at least for now, it was determined there was no cause to hold for prosecution the other four people detained in connection with the escape.
Down the hatch ... the shower area that connected to Guzman’s escape tunnel. Picture: AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo Source: AP
Guzman, who is believed to be 58, waited until he had received his daily dose of medication at 8pm before making his escape from the Altiplano jail, one of Mexico’s most secure prisons.
He reportedly slipped out of his cell through a rectangular passage in his shower area, climbing down a 10 metre ladder into an illuminated tunnel.
The tunnel runs about 1.5 kilometres underneath cornfields and corn pastures in Mexico’s Almoloya de Juarez region, about 90km west of Mexico City.
Where he came out ... the house where the tunnel ended. Picture: AFP / Mario Vazquez Source: AFP
The ventilated tunnel was equipped with a motorcycle-on-rails system that whisked Guzman to a small cinder-block house, from which he is believed to have emerged to freedom.
Many people believe construction on a water-pipeline project near the jail allowed Guzman’s men to build his escape tunnel without being noticed.