Mexico Releases Video Of 'El Chapo' Being Booked
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MEXICO CITY (CBSMiami) – The Mexican government is giving a glimpse of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman as he has never been seen before. For the first time, a video shows the Mexican drug lord being fingerprinted, standing for a mugshot and giving a blood sample.
It also shows facial comparisons from his first arrest in 1993 and his most recent capture on January 8th.
The 19-minute video, released by the Mexican attorney general's office, narrates with great detail how the drug lord escaped from prison last July from a maximum security prison.
It shows pictures inside the house used by associates and images of the power tools they worked with inside the nearly mile-long escape tunnel fitted with lighting and ventilation systems.
Mexican officials said the workers used motorcycles that were modified to run on tracks. One of them was used to whisk "El Chapo" out of the tunnel the night of his escape.
The attorney general's office said it took between eight and 10 months to build the tunnel. As many as 15 people worked nonstop. They used a compass to dig in the right direction and hydraulic tools to break through concrete and metal-cutting tools to cut the reinforcing bar in the concrete floor of Guzman's cell.
The video includes an animation showing how Guzman changed clothes inside the tunnel and his getting into a cart that was pushed by a motorcyclist to freedom.
Authorities said a pilot took off with El Chapo from an airstrip for crop dusters and flew him to the Mexican state of Sinaloa, Guzman's home state.
Weeks of search operations followed, officials say, in the drug-producing region known as the Golden Triangle.
The Mexican Navy pinpointed El Chapo's location in October, but he escaped using a young girl and at least one woman as human shields.
Intelligence work took investigators to a house in the coastal city of Los Mochis. Intelligence officers watched the house for a month until unusual activity was detected on January 6th, including the arrival of new vehicle.
The navy raided the house two days later. Five people allegedly tied to El Chapo died in the shootout and one soldier was wounded.
El Chapo would use a tunnel to briefly escape again, only to be caught moments later with an alleged accomplice in a stolen car as they were trying to flee.