reporter: guys, good morning. very difficult to see that tunnel as it is underground, but it basically stretches from the prison facility that you see behind me and i ll show it to you as federal police continue on their patrols around the perimeter, and then extends just past really this road here up to a brick home that was under construction and that is where authorities say this very powerful, very dangerous, and very ruthful individual emerged saturday into sunday. this is an individual that authorities want to get their hands on and not just here in mexico but also in the united states. he s got several outstanding charges and there s several indictments as well for other states there. he is believed to have been responsible for the smuggling of what can only be estimated as tons of drugs not to mention the deaths of rival cartel members and innocent men, women, and children. so right now the search is on. i can tell you that there s a partial perimeter that s been set up in an
and discovered a rectangular hole in the cell shower that led to a vertical tunnel with stairs and from there to the escape tunnel. anna maria salazar is an analyst based in mexico and a former pentagon official. question apparently this particular prison is considered to be the secure one of the most if not the most secure prison in mexico and it had been evaluated by international authorities and gotten a very good evaluation. it was considered to be very secure. reporter: guzman s sinaloa cartel is known for its expertise in tunnel building along the border for drug trafficking. the tunnel at the maximum security prison 55 miles west of mexico city reflects that knowledge. 1500 meters or almost a mile long from point a to point b, ventilation through plastic piping electricity, lighting and even a motorcycle-powered buggy and a very detailed work of engineering. the tunnel ended at a
beneath this bathtub, a secret tunnel. so if you climb down the steps, you find yourself in the tunnel itself and you can see it s been quite carefully instructed out of wood. you have to crouch a little bit but you re quite mobile. and there s an electricity system running throughout it. the nearest other safe house from here is three kilometers in this direction. the constructed part of the tunnel ends here and if you go through this door you find yourself in the sewage system an ideal escape route. and the tunnel system comes out right here in another safe house just down the road. as you can see, it is a very similar setup to the previous one. in all the houses evidence of life suddenly suspended. the minutia is often interesting. a child slide, christmas decorations and a fondness for mayonnaise. this safe house is perhaps the most significant of all of them. this is where chapo guzman escaped from while being pursued by mexican marines. they broke down this door and
any of the people who work at the prison were complicit, how do you suppose he went about convincing requesting demanding anything? yeah i think demanding might be the issue. i don t think that anyone wants to actually take money just to look the other way while a tunnel is being dug from the outside in. but in the last hour you ve had several guests who really did confirm the fact that his power mostly depends on coercion. if you re not going to take the money that he offers you to look the other way while a tunnel is being dug to his cell then he will threaten your family and promise to hang your loved ones from the bridges and dis em bowel them. this is not made up stuff, this happens all the time. if you are between a rock and a hard place as a lowly paid corrections officer in mexico your choice of doing the right thing, especially if you don t know if your colleagues are on his payroll or not, turning him in or reporting the fact that he tried to bribe you is probably
most powerful of cartel leaders? what was it about him, his influence, the way he conducted business especially after the way you mentioned he s still illiterate he didn t have much education. what is the secret? he s a very canny businessman. he s been very violent and serb certainly hasn t shied away from using violence. his organization is probably responsible for tens of thousands of murders over the last decade or so. he s also a smart guy who put together an intricate chapo guzman actually invented the border tunnel. he s the guy that 25 years ago thought to burrow underneath the border and so it s not surprising when you think about it in that respect that he would use a tunnel to escape this maximum security prison. and that s what makes this so remarkable because it would seem the common knowledge of the tunnelling this engineering