Did a little jailbirdie help El Chapo fly the coop? 'Sparrow used to test escape route'

Drug kingpin Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman may have been able to make his elaborate escape thanks to the help of a little birdie, it has emerged.

The billionaire Sinaloa cartel boss left a sparrow in the waste bin of his cell to test the air quality in the tunnel before flying the coop, reports have claimed.

Government officials are believed to have found it curled up asleep in the bottom of his bedside bin when they inspected the cell in Almoloya prison for clues as to his escape.

Investigating officers nicknamed the sparrow 'Chapito' and said it was the 'signature of his flight'. 

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Drug kingpin Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman left a sparrow in the waste bin of his cell to test the air quality in the tunnel (pictured) before making his escape 

It is thought that the drug lord's accomplices met him at the tunnel entrance and passed him the bird to place in his bin before he left. 

This would explain why he walked back and forth so much from the shower before exiting.

The bird is now being kept by the federal attorney's office as evidence taken from his cell.

The drug boss also left a small LCD television turned on inside his cell with the volume raised to throw off guards, according to Mexican newspaper Reforma. 

The 0.9mile tunnel led directly from underneath the prison showers to the Santa Juana construction site and is thought to have taken a year to construct

This photo shows the shower area where authorities claim drug lord Guzman, slipped into a tunnel to escape from his prison cell at the Altiplano maximum security prison, in Almoloya, west of Mexico City

Guzman is thought to have paid prison guards at the maximum-security prison, which is 50 miles outside of Mexico City, an estimated total of $50million in order to bribe his path to freedom.

Footage released earlier this week from the security cameras trained on Guzman's cell show the exact moment he jumped into the hole in his shower.

He prized open a 50cm-by-50cm grill in the shower floor, and climbed down a 32ft shaft into the complex tunnel system.

The most recent image of Guzman before he escaped from Altiplano prison

Mexican officials estimate this would have taken his henchmen a total of 352 days, with four miners working eight to 10 hour shifts - all right under the feet of the guards. 

Inside the tunnel was electric lighting, a ventilation system and a motorbike waiting to carry him to freedom. 

In contrast to the clean-shaven photo of Guzman that Mexican officials released this weekend in what was said to be a recent picture, Guzman appears to have a full head of hair.

It is unclear if he has a mustache, but the hair seems to be consistent with pictures where he is pictured drinking and flying on an airplane in what his sons claim to be photos taken this weekend. 

The 0.9mile tunnel led directly from underneath the prison showers to the Santa Juana construction site, just outside of the prison perimeters.

Waiting for him here was a ramshackle building, with just two bedrooms, a cellar, and a change of clothes for the crime lord.

And Guzman had everything he needed to disappear into the Mexican countryside once again, for the second time in 15 years.

But the plan took incredibly detailed, exact planning from the group of four highly skilled engineers, trusted with the liberation of their leader.

They had acquired blueprints of the prison, and worked a grueling 10 hour a day schedule for almost an entire year before the tunnel was complete. 

Footage released earlier this week from the security cameras trained on Guzman's cell show the exact moment he jumped into the hole in his shower 

The operation would have required 379 dump trucks in total, carrying tens of thousands of bags of earth. 

Mexican authorities have distributed 100,000 photos of Guzman and have 10,000 agents on high-alert as they desperately try to recapture him

'You have to buy off the guards and they know how rich he is. They will have asked for tens of millions of dollars,' Vasquez told The Telegraph.

'That escape cost money.'

DEA documents obtained by The Associated Press on Monday showed that U.S. agents had seen signs that work on plotting Guzman's escape began almost immediately after his arrest in February 2014.