Prison boss is sacked as humiliated Mexico scrambles to find El Chapo: DEA reveals they warned of escape plot SIXTEEN MONTHS ago as kingpin's son posts taunting photo claiming he is on a plane, celebrating his freedom 

  • Director of the maximum-security prison from which Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman escaped has been fired, Mexican authorities announced Monday
  • Pictures purport to show Guzman during the two days after his escape
  • Were allegedly sent to El Blog de Narco by one of Guzman's sons   
  • Drug lord also allegedly posted threats to Donald Trump who had criticized Guzman's escape
  • Trump has called in the FBI to investigate the threats made against him 
  • The Republican presidential candidate replied 'I'm fighting for much more than myself. I'm fighting for the future of our country which is being overrun by criminals. You can't be intimidated. This is too important.' 
  • Mexican authorities have not recaptured El Chapo since his escape on Saturday 

The director of the maximum-security prison where billionaire drug kingpin Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman staged his elaborate escape on Saturday has been fired, Mexican Interior Minister Miguel Ángel Osorio Chong has said.

The announcement comes on the same day that photographs emerged of Guzman appearing to taunt authorities with his new-found freedom by drinking beer and flying in an airplane.

Additionally, Drug Enforcement Agency documents released on Monday revealed that the United States warned Mexico of Guzman’s escape plans 16 months ago.

Officials are now offering a reward up to 60million pesos (about $3.8million) for information leading up to the capture of Guzman.

Flight to safety: According to the El Blog Del Narco the man in the picture on the right is Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman and was taken less than two days after his brazen escape from jail in Mexico on Saturday

Flight to safety: According to the El Blog Del Narco the man in the picture on the right is Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman and was taken less than two days after his brazen escape from jail in Mexico on Saturday

Relaxed: El Chapo is pictured here in another photograph which was released to the blog by one of Guzman's sons. Notable is that he appears to be in public just hours after his prison break

Relaxed: El Chapo is pictured here in another photograph which was released to the blog by one of Guzman's sons. Notable is that he appears to be in public just hours after his prison break

Guzman sends a tweet directly to Donald Trump telling him he will eat this words, following his escape from prison 

Guzman sends a tweet directly to Donald Trump telling him he will eat this words, following his escape from prison 

Osorio Chong said that security footage of Guzman’s prison cell prior to his escape will also be released to the public.

The photos of Guzman drinking beer and flying on an airplane were sent to a blog which monitors the on-going drug war in Mexico by one of Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's sons, and were allegedly taken after his audacious escape just two days ago.

If verified, the pictures would be the first of the notorious cartel leader to surface since his prison break on Saturday morning from Altiplano jail and follow Twitter threats to presidential candidate Donald Trump warning him to stop his anti-Mexico rhetoric.

A recent prison photo of Guzman shows him with a shaved head and without his trademark mustache - but in the photos of Guzman celebrating his release, he appears to be sporting a full head of hair and a mustache.

While the photos are still in question, DEA documents reveal that drug agents first got information in March 2014 that Guzman family members and drug-world associates were considering ‘potential operations to free Guzman’, shortly after his recapture at a seaside resort in February 2014. 

Minister Chong said that authorities were never informed 'in that respect', referring to previous escape plans. He added that U.S. counterparts also said they didn't know where the escape information came from.

But a U.S. official briefed on the investigation confirmed that the Mexican authorities were alerted to the plots. The official spoke on condition of anonymity to the Associated Press.

The DEA documents do not include details of how the previous escape plots would be carried out and agents did not have information about Saturday night's plan, when Guzman escaped through an underground tunnel in his prison cell's shower area, allegedly built without the detection of authorities.

Search continues: Federal Police man their weapons aboard a pick up truck, near the half-built house where drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman made his escape through a tunnel from the Altiplano maximum security prison in Almoloya, west of Mexico City

Search continues: Federal Police man their weapons aboard a pick up truck, near the half-built house where drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman made his escape through a tunnel from the Altiplano maximum security prison in Almoloya, west of Mexico City

Standing guard: A policeman keeps watch near the Altiplano Federal Penitentiary (rear), where the drug escaped from on Saturday

Standing guard: A policeman keeps watch near the Altiplano Federal Penitentiary (rear), where the drug escaped from on Saturday

End of the road: Officials look at the construction site where the exit of the tunnel Guzman reportedly used to escape the prison was located

End of the road: Officials look at the construction site where the exit of the tunnel Guzman reportedly used to escape the prison was located

Sacked: Mexico's Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio (pictured) announced that the director of the maximum-security prison from which Guzman escaped has been fired

Sacked: Mexico's Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio (pictured) announced that the director of the maximum-security prison from which Guzman escaped has been fired

But they revealed that in March 2014 agents in Los Angeles reported a possible escape operation funded by Rafael Caro-Quintero, who helped orchestrate the 1985 kidnapping and murder of DEA agent Enrique ‘Kiki’ Camarena.

That plot involved threatening or bribing prison officials. The same investigation revealed four months later that Guzman's son had sent a team of lawyers and military counter-intelligence personnel to design a break-out plan. 

In December of 2014, agents in the DEA's Houston Field Division reported that a Mexican army general stated ‘that a deal was in place to release both Guzman-Loera and imprisoned Los Zetas Cartel leader Miguel Angel “Z-40” Tevino-Morales’. 

‘Despite being imprisoned in a `high security' facility, DEA reporting further indicates Guzman-Loera was able to provide direction to his son and other cartel members via the attorneys who visited (him) in prison and possibly through the use of a cellphone provided...by corrupt prison guards,’ the documents stated.

Following Guzman's capture, according to the documents, his son Ivan Guzman-Salazar became ‘the de facto leader of the Guzman branch of the Sinaloa Cartel’.’

Guzman's ‘right-hand man, Damaso Lopez-Nunez’ took over one of the four major trafficking organizations that operated under the auspices of the larger Sinaloa Cartel.  

Prior to the DEA documents being released this weekend, a Twitter account thought to be run by the drug-lord's son Ivan issued a stark warning to Donald Trump, who has weighed in on the escape amid his ongoing crusade against Mexican immigration.

It advised the Republican candidate that 'If you keep p****** me off I'm going to make you eat your words you f****** blonde milk-s*****''.

Lookout: A soldier searches the field filled with yellow caution tape in front of the building Guzman appeared to have made his exit from

Lookout: A soldier searches the field filled with yellow caution tape in front of the building Guzman appeared to have made his exit from

What's next? Mexico's Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, white shirt, walks through the escape scene with authorities on Monday

What's next? Mexico's Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, white shirt, walks through the escape scene with authorities on Monday

No sign: Mexico's Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, white shirt, stands with officials at the site from which Guzman appeared to escape from

No sign: Mexico's Interior Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, white shirt, stands with officials at the site from which Guzman appeared to escape from

Baffled: Authorities look into the entrance to a secret tunnel through which Guzman is believed to had fled

Baffled: Authorities look into the entrance to a secret tunnel through which Guzman is believed to had fled

On the run: Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, pictured in a mugshot last year, fled from his prison last night

On the run: Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, pictured in a mugshot last year, fled from his prison last night

The menacing message follows Trump's own blowhard promise to deal with El Chapo harshly, claiming that Guzman embodies 'everything that is wrong with Mexico', adding he would 'kick his ass'.

Trump weighed in even further on Sunday, suggesting that U.S. border authorities are so incompetent that they will offer him citizenship next.

The property magnate, who is known as The Donald, has fired off a barrage of anti-Mexican rhetoric since starting his presidential campaign and said Guzman's dramatic jail break proved Mexico's 'corruption'.

A campaign spokesperson for Trump told DailyMail.com that 'the FBI is fully aware of the situation and is actively investigating this threat against Mr. Trump.'

The billionaire himself added that 'I'm fighting for much more than myself. I'm fighting for the future of our country which is being overrun by criminals. 'You can't be intimidated. This is too important.'

In addition to threatening Trump, Guzman also took aim at the Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto saying: ''And you @EPN, don't call me a delinquent because I give people work unlike you you cowardly politician.' He also warned that, if he was caught, there would be a 'fight'. 

The drugs lord's account became particularly active yesterday, when many believe it was Guzman himself sending messages of victory and threatening his enemies with gruesome death. 

He also posted: 'Never say never, this world keeps turning. In this life, he who risks nothing cannot win'.

He followed up with 'There's no jail for such a big midget' -  El Chapo means midget in Spanish as Guzman measures only five foot six inches tall. 

He also started calling death threats on those who have supposedly betrayed him, including El Chabelo, the current incarcerated boss of Sinaloa's rival cartel the Zetas.

Guzman wrote: 'First to die is El Chabelo, for wanting to see me die in prison.'

He then hinted that the authorities had been complicit in the jailbreak by posting: 'The dog (slang for the Mexican government) dances for money, and I've bought it.' 

In a series of tweets, Guzman reportedly wrote: 'There's no jail for such a big midget' 

In a series of tweets, Guzman reportedly wrote: 'There's no jail for such a big midget' 

Donald Trump had previously said that Guzman embodies 'everything that is wrong with Mexico' and said he would 'kick his ass' 

Donald Trump had previously said that Guzman embodies 'everything that is wrong with Mexico' and said he would 'kick his ass' 

He followed up by saying 'Never say never, this world keeps turning' on an account thought to be administer by his son 

He followed up by saying 'Never say never, this world keeps turning' on an account thought to be administer by his son 

The account became particularly active yesterday, when many believe it was Guzman himself sending messages such as 'In this life, he who risks nothing cannot win'

The account became particularly active yesterday, when many believe it was Guzman himself sending messages such as 'In this life, he who risks nothing cannot win'

Ivan had earlier posted: 'I won't lie, I have cried but I bring armed men and I promise that soon the General will be back

Ivan had earlier posted: 'I won't lie, I have cried but I bring armed men and I promise that soon the General will be back

Guzman made the audacious escape from a prison 50 miles west of Mexico City on Saturday night, sparking a huge manhunt.

The escape saw him dash through the mile-long tunnel system, which led to a building under construction next to the prison - from where he collected clothes left for him by his conspirators. 

Current building work taking place around the perimeter Altiplano prison is said to be connected to a water reservoir project, aiming to bring water from the west of the capital into Mexico City.

The company, Cutzamala Constructions, reportedly started the job around 14 months ago. But some of the pipes have still not been laid and workers admitted they did not know why the work was taking place in that area. 

Jim Dinkins, the former head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations unit said that Guzman's history of tunneling makes Saturday's escape ‘really ingenious’.

The sophisticated tunnel described by Mexican authorities would usually take about a year and half to two years to complete, Dinkins said, suggesting it was started almost immediately after Guzman's arrest in 2014. 

Heavily concealed: The alleged end of the tunnel through which Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman could have escaped from the Altiplano prison

Heavily concealed: The alleged end of the tunnel through which Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman could have escaped from the Altiplano prison

Break for freedom: Guzman escaped from the maximum-security prison on Sunday. This was his second jail break in 14 years

Break for freedom: Guzman escaped from the maximum-security prison on Sunday. This was his second jail break in 14 years

Inconspicuous: Pictured is the interior of the home through which Guzman fled. Clothes and a phone charger could be seen inside

Inconspicuous: Pictured is the interior of the home through which Guzman fled. Clothes and a phone charger could be seen inside

Escape gear? This box of clothes was also pictured at the half-constructed property

Escape gear? This box of clothes was also pictured at the half-constructed property

Crime scene tape is placed around another hole near the house he is thought to have escaped into

Crime scene tape is placed around another hole near the house he is thought to have escaped into

Federal police check a house at the end of the tunnel through which he could have escaped

Federal police check a house at the end of the tunnel through which he could have escaped

This picture shows how close the house (left) is to the Altiplano maximum security prison in Almoloya (right)

This picture shows how close the house (left) is to the Altiplano maximum security prison in Almoloya (right)

Officers search huge construction pipes on the large building site next to the prison on Sunday

Officers search huge construction pipes on the large building site next to the prison on Sunday

Bedding can be seen in one of the pipes being inspected by police. It is not known who put the blankets there

Bedding can be seen in one of the pipes being inspected by police. It is not known who put the blankets there

Local media have now began questioning how no-one saw 3,250 tonnes of earth that was removed to construct a tunnel a mile long, 80 centimetres wide, and 1.7 metres tall. 2,652 cubic metres of earth would have to be removed, enough to fill 379 dump trucks.

The prison staff are equipped with radar and electronic depth testing equipment which they are required to use regularly specifically in order to check for things like tunnels but nothing was ever reported.

Guzman, who had bribed his way out of prison during an escape in 2001, was seen on video entering his shower area at 8:52 p.m. on Saturday, the National Security Commission (CNS) said.

The Sinaloa cartel has a long history of tunnel building, particularly along the US border where they were used to smuggle narcotics into America, and in his home state of Sinaloa, where subterranean structures still hide weapons.

The cartel has an engineering division, less notorious than the organisation's armed factions, but equally vital in their ongoing operations.

Five days before his capture El Chapo fled from a military operation aimed at his capture through a tunnel in his mansion connected to the city's storm drains.

Mexico's National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido at the press conference on Sunday

Mexico's National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubido at the press conference on Sunday

The tunnel was located below a bathtub, which raised itself vertically by the flick of a switch, revealing escape tunnels.

The same device was found in seven of the 19 separate houses belonging to El Chapo which the government seized following his capture.

Wanted by U.S. prosecutors and once featured in the Forbes list of billionaires, Guzman was gone by the time guards entered his cell in Altiplano prison in central Mexico, the CNS said.

'This is going to be a massive black eye for Pena Nieto's administration,' said Mike Vigil, former head of global operations for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration.

'I don't think they took into account the cunning of Chapo Guzman and the unlimited resources he has. If Chapo Guzman is able to make it back to the mountainous terrain that he knows so well in the state of Sinaloa ... he may never be captured again.'

Beneath a 50-cm by 50-cm hole in the cell's shower area, guards found a ladder descending some 32 feet into the tunnel, which was about 5.6 feet high and 28-31 inches wide.

Prison workers were quickly detained over the escape.

Rubido said 18 officials from the penitentiary were being interrogated at the unit specializing in organized crime at the Attorney General's office.

Outside the Altiplano lockup, and at the deserted property where Guzman surfaced, security forces barred reporters, while guards arrived for the day shift and encountered a prison in lockdown, wondering whether to stay or go home.

After the launch of a massive manhunt for Guzman, Mexican President Pena Nieto ordered an investigation into whether public officials had helped the capo escape. 

Notorious: Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, pictured after his last arrest in 2014,  has escaped from a maximum security prison in Mexico. The drugs kingspin is head of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel

Notorious: Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, pictured after his last arrest in 2014, has escaped from a maximum security prison in Mexico. The drugs kingspin is head of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel

Massive search: A convoy of federal police guard a prison van travelling through Mexico City on Sunday. It is believed to hold some of the 18 prison officials who have been taken in for questioning

Massive search: A convoy of federal police guard a prison van travelling through Mexico City on Sunday. It is believed to hold some of the 18 prison officials who have been taken in for questioning

'There's no doubt this is an affront to the Mexican state, but I have confidence that the institutions ... can recapture this criminal,' he said in a statement from Paris 

According to Vice, Guzman enjoyed special privileges inside the prison - including private audiences with his visitors - while other inmates had a tougher time.

Guzman - whose nickname El Chapo ('The Shorty') is a reference to his height of 5ft 6ins - runs a drug empire that stretches across North America and into Europe and Australia. 

His latest escape comes just 16 months after he was captured following more than a decade on the run. He currently faces federal drug trafficking indictments in the U.S. 

After Guzman was arrested on Feb. 22, 2014, the U.S. said it would file an extradition request, though it's not clear if that happened. 

U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch said in a statement Sunday: 'The U.S. government stands ready to work with our Mexican partners to provide any assistance that may help support his swift recapture.'

State Department spokesman John Kirby said Guzman's "swift recapture by Mexican authorities is a priority for both the Mexican and the U.S. governments." 

Mexico's president Enrique Pena Nieto, who is in France, addressed reporters on Sunday afternoon

Mexico's president Enrique Pena Nieto, who is in France, addressed reporters on Sunday afternoon

Guzman's cartel, Sinaloa, has been heavily involved in the bloody drug war that has torn through parts of Mexico for the last decade, taking an estimated 100,000 lives. It is believed to control most of the major crossing points for drugs at the US border with Mexico. 

If he is not captured immediately, Guzman will likely be back in full command and control of the Sinaloa cartel in 48 hours, said Michael S. Vigil, a retired U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief of international operations.

'We may never find him again,' he added. 'All the accolades that Mexico has received in their counterdrug efforts will be erased by this one event.'  

During Guzman's previous years as a fugitive, he transformed himself from a lowly middleman into arguably the most powerful drug trafficker in the world - and he was placed on the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration's most-wanted list.

His fortune is estimated at more than $1billion, according to Forbes magazine - which listed him among the 'World's Most Powerful People' and ranked him above the presidents of France and Venezuela. 

Guzman was caught by authorities for the first time in Guatemala in 1993, then he was extradited and sentenced to 20 years in prison in Mexico for murder and drug trafficking. 

 We may never find him again. All the accolades that Mexico has received in their counterdrug efforts will be erased by this one event
Michael S. Vigil, retired U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration official

He escaped from another maximum security prison, Puente Grande in western Jalisco state, in 2001 with the help of prison guards. 

He hid in a laundry cart to make his getaway, but there are several theories as to how he got out. 

Guzman is known for his ability to pay off local residents and even authorities, who tipped him off to security operations launched for his capture. 

He was finally tracked down to a modest beachside high-rise in the Pacific Coast resort city of Mazatlan in February 2014, where he had been hiding with his beauty-queen wife Emma Coronel and twin daughters.

Coronel, who was born in California, is a U.S. citizen, which means she has the right to live in the United States. Her father was also a drug lord who died in a shoot-out with the Mexican army.

She was sent to California to give birth so that her daughters would be U.S. citizens too. Federal agents wanted to stop her, but had no formal charges to file so had to let her go free. 

Policemen search for the drug lord outside Altiplano prison in Almoloya de Juarez on Sunday

Policemen search for the drug lord outside Altiplano prison in Almoloya de Juarez on Sunday

Sprawling: The Altiplano Federal Penitentiary in Almoloya de Juarez on the outskirts of Mexico City

Sprawling: The Altiplano Federal Penitentiary in Almoloya de Juarez on the outskirts of Mexico City

Public security forces search a construction site right next to the barbed wire of the prison on Saturday night

Public security forces search a construction site right next to the barbed wire of the prison on Saturday night

Soldiers set up checkpoints and searched vehicles on the highway between Mexico City and Toluca

Soldiers set up checkpoints and searched vehicles on the highway between Mexico City and Toluca

Before security forces captured him, they went on a several-day chase through Culiacan, the capital of his home Sinaloa state, for which the cartel is named. 

They found houses with steel-enforced doors and elaborate tunnels - where Guzman had apparently been staying - that allowed him to escape through the sewer system.

THE BEAUTY QUEEN WIFE AND MOTHER TO HIS TWIN DAUGHTERS

Emma Coronel, Guzman's wife and mother to his twin daughters

Emma Coronel is either Guzman's third or fourth wife and they were married in 2011 when she was just 18-years-old. She caught his eye after winning the Miss Coffee and Guava beauty contest.

Coronel, who is the daughter of one of Guzman's top deputies, Ines Coronel Barreas, was last seen re-entering Mexico in August 2011.

The then 22-year-old had just given birth to Guzman's twin daughters at Antelope Valley Hospital in Lancaster, north of Los Angeles, California.

Because Coronel is both an American and Mexican citizen - she is allowed to travel freely between the two countries.

Guzman was caught with an unidentified woman when he was captured following his first escape, but his young wife was unaccounted for.

Earlier this year, the then Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam said that sending Guzman to the US, where he is wanted, would save Mexico a lot of money, but keeping him there was a question of national sovereignty.

Murillo Karam had dismissed concerns that Guzman would escape a second time. That risk 'does not exist', he said. Murillo Karam has since been replaced by Arely Gomez. 

In 1993, gunmen linked to the Tijuana-based Arrellano Felix cartel attempted to assassinate Guzman at the Guadalajara airport but instead killed Roman Catholic Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo - leading to outrage among Mexicans. 

Guzman was rumored to have once entered a restaurant in Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, where his henchmen confiscated every patron's cellphone so their boss could eat without fear of an ambush. 

He was also reported to have staged an elaborate public wedding in 2007 to an 18-year-old bride, which was attended by officials and local police.

Federal police say they raided the town that day but got there just a few hours too late.

Guzman was known to move around frequently, using private aircraft, bulletproof SUVs and even all-terrain vehicles.

His location was part of Mexican folklore, with rumors circulating of him being everywhere from Guatemala to almost every corner of Mexico, especially its 'Golden Triangle', a mountainous, marijuana-growing region straddling the northern states of Sinaloa, Durango and Chihuahua.

An archbishop in northern Durango state said in April 2009 that Guzman lived in a town nearby. Days later, investigators found the bodies of two slain army lieutenants with the note: 'Neither the government nor priests can handle El Chapo.'

The Chicago Crime Commission, an influential crime-fighting group in Illinois, said Sunday that the prison break meant Guzman will regain his title as Public Enemy No. 1 in Chicago, where his Sinaloa cartel has long dominated the cocaine and heroin trade.

When the group attached the Public Enemy label to Guzman a year before his capture, it was the first time it had been used since it was applied in 1930 to Prohibition-era gangster Al Capone. 

The Chicago Crime Commission planned to formally restore the title to Guzman this week, said John Pastuovic, a spokesman for the non-governmental body.

Several U.S. attorneys' offices have indicted Guzman on trafficking charges, including in Chicago, where several Guzman lieutenants were successfully extradited, prosecuted and imprisoned. The U.S. had said after Guzman's 2014 capture that it would file an extradition request, though it's unclear if that already happened.

For its part, Mexico's government at the time denied the need to extradite Guzman even as many expressed fears he would inevitably escape. 

Current building work taking place around the perimeter Altiplano prison is said to be connected to a water reservoir project, aiming to bring water from the west of the capital into Mexico City

Current building work taking place around the perimeter Altiplano prison is said to be connected to a water reservoir project, aiming to bring water from the west of the capital into Mexico City

The company, Cutzamala Constructions, reportedly started the job around 14 months ago. But some of the pipes have still not been laid and workers admitted they did not know why the work was taking place in that area

The company, Cutzamala Constructions, reportedly started the job around 14 months ago. But some of the pipes have still not been laid and workers admitted they did not know why the work was taking place in that area

Going underground: Pictured is A interconnected tunnel in a Culiacan drainage system which Guzman used to hide

Going underground: Pictured is A interconnected tunnel in a Culiacan drainage system which Guzman used to hide

Search goes on: Mexican soldiers check a coach at a tollbooth of Mexico-Toluca highway, in Mexico City

Search goes on: Mexican soldiers check a coach at a tollbooth of Mexico-Toluca highway, in Mexico City

THE COMPLEX TUNNEL ESCAPE ROUTE THAT WAS TOO ELABORATE TO MISS

as authorities hunted Monday for any sign of Mexico's most powerful drug lord, security experts said it's clear that Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman's escape through an elaborately designed tunnel must have involved help on a grand scale.

'How did Chapo escape? In one word: corruption,' wrote Alejandro Hope, a former member of Mexico's domestic intelligence service, in his blog El Daily Post.

'He escaped through a mile-long tunnel, wide enough to hold a motorcycle, and ending in one of the few blind spots in Mexico's most-secure prison. How do you do that without some high-level corruption?'

U.S. authorities believe the tunnel through which Guzman made his audacious exit Saturday evening must have been in the works for at least a year, nearly as long as the head of the notorious Sinaloa Cartel had been at the Altiplano prison 55 miles west of Mexico City.

A tunnel of such sophistication - with lights, air venting, and a customized motorcycle rigged up on a rail line - would have taken 18 months to two years to complete, said Jim Dinkins, former head of Immigration and Customs Enforcement's Homeland Security Investigations.

'When it's for the boss, you probably put that on high speed,' he said.

If anyone was capable of pulling off such a feat, it was Guzman, who is believed to have at least a quarter-century of experience in building large, sophisticated tunnels to deliver contraband under the U.S.-Mexico border and to escape from hideouts as authorities closed in.

One of his first tunnels was found in 1990 between Douglas, Arizona, and Agua Prieta, Mexico. Officials estimated the 200-foot passage would have cost $2million to build at the time. It featured electric lights, pumps to keep it clear of water and elaborate entrances.

Joe Garcia, who retired this year as interim special agent in charge of U.S. Homeland Security Investigations in San Diego, has extensive experience in tunnel investigations. He said the tunnel at Altiplano was longer than any passage ever found on the U.S.-Mexico border.

Guzman must have had cooperation from government officials given the passage's length and sophistication, and the time required to build it, Garcia said.

DEA documents obtained by The Associated Press on Monday show work on hatching escape plots began almost immediately after Guzman was arrested in February 2014 and that he remained in charge of the Sinaloa cartel despite being locked up.

To pull off such a feat, rescuers likely had intelligence on the prison even before Guzman was arrested, Dinkins said.

Designers and workers would have needed access to sensitive information such as prison floor plans and alarm and camera systems. And just the noise alone as they bored the final 30-foot (10-meter) vertical passage directly under the prison to reach Guzman's cell would have generated some attention.

'It's not just like someone took a couple tools, shovels and pickaxes. This is a very sophisticated operation,' said Alonzo Pena, a former senior official at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. 'How could they be there and not hear that construction was going on underneath? It's just impossible.'

The Sinaloa cartel is known to build tunnels in a San Diego industrial area partly because it's easy to blend in: Streets hum with semitrailers by day and fall silent on nights and weekends, U.S. investigators said.

The area around the prison is a giant construction site, with giant water pipes, trenches and excavation crisscrossing the landscape, which would have made it easy for the tunnel work to go unnoticed, Garcia noted.

'What probably worked well for them was all the construction around the facility,' he said. 'It's the removal of dirt and debris that can cause attention.'

The tunnel led from the shower of Guzman's cell, under a field and to the floor of partially constructed cinder-block house. 

Mexico officials continued to question 30 prison employees on Monday, including the director of the prison, formally known as Federal Social Re-adaptation Center No. 1, which also houses many of the top capos nabbed in recent years by the administration of President Enrique Pena Nieto.

By Monday afternoon, the search for Guzman in the area near the prison had died down dramatically. Road blocks were gone and Federal Police patrols had lightened. Reporters traveled the area unhampered. Flights at the nearby Toluca airport that had been suspended on Sunday were back to normal.

The prison break is the second for Guzman, who infamously fled a different maximum-security facility in 2001, some say by hiding in a laundry cart, though there are other versions to explain that escape. He was on the loose for 13 years before being captured at a condominium overlooking the Pacific in Mazatlan.

He last was seen about 9pm on Saturday as he entered the shower area of his cell. After a time without seeing him, guards went to look for him and found something else entirely: a 20-by-20-inch passage into the earth.

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