Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman’s Lawyer Was A Key Facilitator In His Escape

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is currently one of the most notorious drug lords in the world. Born in the 50s in La Tuna, Sinaloa, he has successfully managed to grow his drug organization — the Sinaloa cartel — into the world’s biggest drug trafficking outfit, boasting an unrivalled wealth of resources to traffic drugs into the United States and control key government departments in Mexico through corruption.

El Chapo escaped from Altiplano prison through a 1.5 kilometer tunnel a few months ago, shocking the United States government, as it had almost successfully obtained an extradition order. The timeliness of his escape is also said to have raised a lot of suspicion within the Mexican government.

Currently, more than 34 people have been charged with aiding El Chapo’s escape, and they include the head of the prison in which El Chapo escaped from, one of his lawyers, a brother-in-law who was involved in buying the land on which the tunnel from the prison began, and a few top level prison authorities.

According to Insight Crime, newly-leaked reports show that prison officials knew about his plans to scamper away months before it happened, and had conversation transcripts indicating this. Apparently, his lawyers were a key part of his escape plan due to their connections with high level authorities in the prison and government. It is alleged that he used them to try and get the prison’s blueprints, which were vital for it to work. The Interior Ministry (SEGOB) is said to have been targeted.

Reports on his attempts to gain this information are alleged to have been forwarded to the then-Intelligence Commissioner, Ramon Eduardo Pequeño Garcia, and Monte Alejandro Rubido Garcia, who headed the National Security Commission (CNS). Also in the know was Miguel Angel Osorio Chong, the Interior Minister.

The person given the task of getting the prison plans is said to be Granados Flores, El Chapo’s lawyer, as he had insider knowledge of the “official hierarchies in penitentiary centers and other government institutions.” He is reported to have been friends with a high ranking official that ranked higher than Celina Oseguera Parra, once the general director of the country’s federal prisons, and presently in jail for her role in the matter.

Proceso, one of the country’s leading magazines speculated that the person in the documents was most likely, Monte Alejandro Rubido Garcia, the National Security Commissioner, Osorio Chong – the minister, or Ignacio Hernandez Mora, who was in charge of the prison system.

More evidence also reveals that his guards had reported possible plans of his escape in the last months of 2014. According to Mexico Daily News, fake construction projects at the prison had been authorized just a few months before his escape so as to drown the noise from work going on in Guzman’s escape tunnel.

According to Gustavo Salas, who heads SEIDO, employees of the prison knew about the systemic weaknesses of the institution and in his words, “They authorized cosmetic works to be carried out to disguise the noise.”

Related information has raised flags about the efficiency of Mexican institutions and pointed to widespread corruption and incompetence as major loopholes in the Mexican judicial system, consequently crippling the ability to contain powerful individuals like El Chapo.

The question of high level arrests also comes into play, as to date, only junior officers with the exception of the head of the Altiplano prison and director Valentin Cardenas have been arrested for involvement in El Chapo Guzman’s escape.