This astounding mistake led to 'El Chapo' Guzman's prison escape

Sinaloa's tunneling prowess

The tunnels that supplied Niebla and Guzmán their escape from different Mexican prisons also have several striking similarities.

Both secret passageways featured ventilation system with makeshift PVC piping. Both were illuminated. And both emerged in unfinished and abandoned construction sites.

While Niebla's route is reported to have taken about two months to build, aerial imagery shows that the endpoint of Guzmán's escape path was actually built six months before he fled.

For extra security the nondescript site is at least a half-mile away from any other building.

Considering both prisons are shockingly similar in layout, the stolen blueprints from 2001 would have tremendously aided Guzmán's accomplices in helping him escape.

Not the first time

In 2014, Mexican marines found a complex tunnel network inside one of Guzmán's hideouts in Culiacan, Mexico. Lifting up a bathtub, investigators climbed into a passage that lead to the city's drainage system.

Guzman escaped through the tunnel, running barefoot underground for as much as a mile, according to The New Yorker. Mexican marines caught up with him a few days later in the coastal city of Mazatlan, pulling off one of the biggest drug arrests in Mexican history.

Now, the brazen escape of the world's most notorious drug lord has triggered yet another manhunt.

NOW WATCH: Here's how the world's most notorious drug lord escaped from his high-security prison cell

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