Notorious Drug Trafficker Escapes From Mexican Jail

A notorious drug trafficker who may have been the intended target of the gunmen who killed Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas Ocampo in 1993 escaped from a high-security prison in the state of Jalisco late Friday, federal officials said.

The prison’s director and 33 prison officers were swiftly arrested on suspicion of aiding the escape.

The mysterious disappearance of Joaquin Guzman Loera, known as “Chapo,” triggered a massive search in the Guadalajara area, where the prison is located. Guzman, whose name is often mentioned along with the likes of the Arellano Felix brothers and other drug kingpins here, was serving time for various federal crimes, including bribery, and also faced homicide charges, Mexico’s Public Security Ministry said.

According to official reports, guards verified that Guzman was in his cell at 9:25 p.m. Friday and that by 11:35 p.m. he appeared to have vanished.

Mexican radio, meanwhile, reported that some neighbors of the prison said their power went out about 4 a.m. Saturday and a small white plane was sighted flying overhead.

Authorities conducted a search of the prison grounds but found nothing. Calling the escape “lamentable,” security ministry spokesman Jorge Tello Peon said at a news conference that “it is evident that to have done this, Mr. Guzman had to have counted on the support of personnel we now have in custody.”

Those arrested included prison director Leonardo Beltran Santana.

Tello also noted that the National Human Rights Commission had raised concerns about lax discipline and preferential treatment at the prison shortly before the escape.

Mexico’s interior minister, Santiago Creel, later confirmed that officials believed Guzman’s accomplices were among those prison officials under arrest, and he promised that he would do all he could to get to the bottom of the case.

Creel characterized an effort by the new federal government to confront drug cartels as a battle being waged “on all fronts.”

“I’m convinced we are going to win,” he added.

Guzman’s escape came after a wild week of news events in Mexico that included the kidnapping and mugging of a high-level Mexico City official in a taxi, the killing of a child in a bomb attack in a neighborhood of the capital and an attempt on the life of Chihuahua Gov. Patricio Martinez, allegedly by a mentally ill former policewoman.

In one of Mexico’s most controversial unsolved mysteries, Guzman, by some accounts, was the intended target when Cardinal Posadas Ocampo, wearing vestments, was gunned down at the Guadalajara airport in May 1993. Rival drug cartel members were said by some to have been trying to kill Guzman and to have hit the cardinal by mistake. Others suspect that Guzman was actually part of a conspiracy to kill the prelate.

Guzman had been in the Puente Grande prison in Jalisco since 1995. After his disappearance was discovered, a large contingent of federal judicial police was sent from Mexico City to aid in the investigation, said Roberto Santiago, a spokesman for the federal police.