Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán lived the past 13 years of his life a wanted man.
Since his 2001 escape from prison in the back of a laundry truck, Guzmán, who oversaw the notorious Sinaloa Cartel, knew his capture was always imminent. So when authorities descended on a safe house rumored to be holding the drug lord last week, Guzmán was able to escape through an elaborate interconnected network of tunnels.
See also: Mexico's Most Notorious Drug Lord Captured in Mazatlan
Days later, thanks to a wiretap being monitored by DEA agents tracking him just across the border in Arizona, Mexican agents captured him. Guzmán is now being held in the country’s highest security prison, and despite the wishes of the United States, has no plans for extradition to face trial in the U.S. anytime soon, according to The Guardian.
Below, peer into the tunnels and safe houses that kept the country's most infamous drug lord away from the prying hands of U.S. and Mexican authorities.
Infamous drug boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman used a network of interconnected tunnels in Culiacan, Mexico to evade authorities just days before being captured this week in the resort city of Mazatlan, Mexico. This open steel reinforced door leads to one of the tunnels located in the city's drainage system.
One of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's top aides told investigators that he picked Guzman up from a drainage pipe in the city and helped him flee—but a wiretap provided the final clue that led to the arrest of one of the world's most wanted men.
Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman spent years on the run at the helm of Mexico's most notorious drug cartel after escaping from a high security federal prison in a laundry truck on on Jan. 19, 2001. Some of the tunnels shown in these photographs were reportedly lined with wood, and contained their own lighting and air conditioning equipment. Guzman, free for more than a decade, was always ready to slip the dragnet again.
Before his eventual capture, Guzman reportedly escaped his captors by running through a drainage canal in the network of interconnected tunnels along with his bodyguards. When they fled, Guzman and his cronies reportedly left grenades, a Dodge Charger police cruiser and part of a municipal police uniform behind.
A number of above-ground properties were interconnected by the tunnels in Culiacan, Mexico. The houses themselves appear to be average homes in the city, but inside them authorities reportedly discovered doors that were reinforced with steel doors—with escape hatches hidden beneath the bathtubs.
One of the properties that was interconnected by tunnels in the city's drainage system featured graffiti on the garage door. It reads in Spanish, "Secured by the PGR"—Mexico's Attorney General Office. It is unclear if Guzman will eventually be tried in the U.S. or in Mexico.