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El Chapo's escape house was already built in February 2015

Barbara Tasch   

El Chapo's escape house was already built in February 2015
Defense2 min read

More details keep emerging about the headline-grabbing prison escape earlier this month of Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán Loera, a notorious Mexican drug lord.

This satellite image shows that in February 2015, six months before his escape, the abandoned construction site that connects the mile-long tunnel to El Chapo's cell had already been built.

Aerial view of the abandoned site El Chapo's escape tunnel lead to.

Screengrab/Barbara Tasch/Business Insider

Side by side aerial view of the abandoned site El Chapo's escape tunnel lead to.

This affirms reports that the notorious drug lord had started planning his escape the moment he was captured.

"El Chapo" was arrested in February 2014, 13 years after his escape from Mexico's Puente Grande prison. He managed to escape again from a high-security prison on July 11.

According to the Associated Press, US drug agents first got wind that El Chapo was planning an escape in March 2014, one month after his capture. The Mexican government has denied it was ever informed of his plans to escape.

El Chapo

AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo

In this Feb. 22, 2014 file photo, Joaquin

In a cinematic escape, the legendary drug lord fled from the prison through a gap in his shower floor which led to the mile-long, illuminated and ventilated tunnel equipped with a motorcycle built on rails.

The tunnel led to the house showed in the pictures, which had seemingly been built for the sole purpose to help build the tunnel discreetly and help his escape. It was at least half a mile from any other building.

The Mexican government is offering a $3.8 million reward for Guzman's recapture, but 10 days after his escape, they do not seem any closer to catching him.

el chapo mexico drug lord altiplano tunnel

AP

Mexican police cordon a home near a maximum security prison Altiplano in Almoloya, west of Mexico City, Sunday, July 12, 2015.

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