El Chapo's daughter claims drug kingpin crossed US border TWICE to visit her in California after his prison break

Brazen: A daughter of Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, pictured above in January after his capture, said in an interview her drug kingpin father snuck into the US twice while a fugitive 

Mexican drug lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman crossed the border into the United States twice to visit his family in California while on the run, one of his daughters revealed in a bombshell interview.

Rosa Isela Guzman Ortiz, who lives in California, told The Guardian her 58-year-old father entered the US last year shortly after his now-notorious October meeting with US actor Sean Penn, evading a manhunt with the complicity of corrupt Mexican officials.

She did not disclose the exact dates of his visits but told the British newspaper that Guzman crossed the border to visit relatives and see her five-bedroom house, which he bought for her and her four children.

'My dad deposited the money in a bank account with a lawyer and a while after he came to see the house, his house. He came twice,' the 39-year-old woman, who has US citizenship and runs several small businesses in Southern California, including car washes and cafes, told The Guardian.

She declined to say how the world's most wanted fugitive managed to enter the United States.

'I asked him the same, believe me,' she said.

Guzman's Sinaloa drug cartel has used sophisticated tunnels to ship massive amounts of narcotics to the US, so such secret passages would have been available to him.

During his clandestine visits to the US, Guzman sought out his twin daughters and his wife, the former beauty queen Emma Coronel, who all live in Los Angeles, according to Ms Guzman Ortiz. 

A Customs and Border Protection spokeswoman told The Washington Post on Friday the agency has 'no information that substantiates the claims in news reports' about Guzmán. 

Guzman Ortiz said her father bought protection at the highest official level, sending representatives to meet with senior politicians.

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Rosa Isela Guzman Ortiz, who lives in California, told The Guardian her 58-year-old father entered the US last year shortly after his now-notorious October meeting with US actor Sean Penn

Ortiz accused politicians of betraying Guzman after he had contributed money to their campaigns

Guzman, the world's most wanted-drug trafficker, center, is escorted by Mexican security forces at a Navy hangar in Mexico City on January  8 after his recapture

'All I know is that my dad told his lawyer to deliver some checks to [a politician's] campaign, and asked that he respect him,' she said, adding that the family was considering releasing copies of the checks, as well as names of officials and politicians who accepted his donations.

Guzman escaped twice from maximum-security prisons.

The first time was in 2001 and he was re-captured in February 2014. His second jailbreak took place in July last year, using a mile-long tunnel equipped with a rail in a brazen escape that left President Enrique Pena Nieto's administration red in the face.

During his clandestine visits to the US, El Chapo sought out his twin daughters and his wife, the former beauty queen Emma Coronel, pictured above,who all live in Los Angeles, according to Ms Guzman Ortiz

His daughter claims that Guzman's second escape had the blessing of senior officials, whom she did not name.

'My dad's escape was an agreement,' she said.

The warden of the Altiplano prison near Mexico City and the head of Mexico's penitentiary system are among the more than 30 people detained over the escape.

Guzman was sent back to Altiplano following his January 8 recapture.

Guzman's daughter claims that his second escape had the blessing of senior Mexican officials

In an interview over Skype following her father's sensational arrest, Guzman Ortiz blasted Mexican government officials, calling them traitors and 'hypocrites. 

'The government broke its promise,' she told the paper. 'If there’s an pact, they don’t respect it. Now that they catch him they say he’s a criminal, a killer. But they didn’t say that when they asked for money for their campaigns.'  

Guzman's lawyer said this week that his client has decided to drop his opposition to extradition to the United States in the hope of negotiating a "relatively reasonable" sentence in a medium-security prison.