Mexico moves drug kingpin El Chapo constantly to avoid new escape

PanARMENIAN.Net - Deeply concerned that the world’s most notorious drug kingpin Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán could escape for a third time, Mexico has beefed up security at his prison, moving him between cells, reinforcing the floor of his cell and placing a 24-hour guard on his door, the Guardian said.

Guzmán, captured on Friday, January 8 six months after a brazen prison break via a mile-long tunnel that burrowed right up into his cell, is now being held in isolation in another part of the prison, a Mexican security source said.

The improved security measures also include reducing the number of inmates, quadrupling the number of cameras on the site and moving Guzmán randomly, without warning, to different parts of the prison, Mexico government spokesman Eduardo Sanchez said.

It emerged on late on Friday that El Chapo’s desire to have a biopic made about him helped agents track him down. Actor Sean Penn then revealed he had met the fugitive about the project. Mexican officials said on Tuesday they were not investigating Penn, or fellow actor Kate del Castillo who acted as a go-between, and instead focusing purely on the circumstances of their meeting.

Armoured vehicles and light tanks stand guard outside the prison walls, while security forces man sand-bagged checkpoints beyond the gates of the prison, about an hour from the capital. Local media said cells in the prison had been fitted with electronic sensors, additional CCTV cameras and in some cases a mesh of steel bars to reinforce the floor and stymie any efforts to tunnel out.

An interior ministry security official, who has visited the jail on various occasions, said the problem with housing kingpins such as El Chapo was that they could easily buy off all the prison staff.