Manhunt Continues For Drug Kingpin "El Chapo" Guzman
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A massive manhunt continued Monday morning for one of the most notorious drug lords in history.
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who was considered Chicago's "Public Enemy Number One" before he was arrested last year, escaped from a Mexican prison on Saturday, using an elaborate lighted tunnel.
It's the second time Guzman has escaped from custody in Mexico,
The fear is he'll never be captured again, and that could be dire; not just for Chicago's drug trafficking, but for the relationship between the U.S. and Mexico.
Guzman's arrest in February 2014 was considered a coup for Mexican authorities, and the worldwide war on drugs; but he broke out of a prison near Mexico City late Saturday night. Prison workers said he was last seen in the showers, then vanished, making his way out through a tunnel from the shower room to an exit about a mile away.
CBS 2 Security Consultant Ross Rice, a former FBI agent, said it's likely Guzman had help from more than one person, and it's unlikely he'll be recaptured.
"I have doubts, given the resources that he has available to him, that he will ever be located again," Rice said.
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Mexican authorities said 18 prison workers were being questioned in connection with the escape.
Guzman also escaped custody in 2001, by hiding in a laundry cart.
He heads the Sinaloa drug cartel, considered one of the most far-reaching and dangerous cartels in the world. Authorities have said its ties to Chicago are deep, prompting the Chicago Crime Commission to name him "Public Enemy Number One" in 2013. It's a title he has reclaimed now that he's on the loose again.
Authorities said the Sinaloa cartel was responsible for much of the drug-related violence in Chicago prior to his 2014 arrest.
Chicago Crime Commission executive vice president Arthur Bilek said he doubts Guzman's latest escape would have much impact on the illegal drug trade in Chicago. He said Guzman's imprisonment last year did little to reduce the flow of drugs through Chicago.
"Within a month after he was in prison, the drug trafficking in Chicago from his cartel had reached the same level that it was before he was incarcerated," he said.
Bilek said Guzman not only is again "Public Enemy Number One" in Chicago, he's still very much a wanted man in Chicago.
"He's currently wanted on two major narcotic warrants in Chicago; really big cases. Cases for which he'll never see daylight if he once gets into that courtroom," he said. "He was the worst criminal in the northern and southern hemisphere, and now he's only reinforced that by breaking out of a maximum security prison, and being on the run again."
Mexican authorities have pledged to recapture Guzman, and U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch has said, "The U.S. government stands ready to work with our Mexican partners to provide any assistance that may help support his swift recapture."
Rice said it's likely El Chapo's escape will cast a shadow over U.S.-Mexico relations when it comes to the war on drugs. He said he believes the escape would never have occurred, had Mexico turned Guzman over to the U.S., as requested, after his arrest.
