Warning: Graphic content, readers’ discretion advised. This story contains a recollection of crime and can be triggering to some readers discretion advised.
it’s 2015 and the world’s most poweful drug trafficker ,El chapo, is about o escape from prison .
did you see it?
right now. he’s gone.
joaquin Guzman loera ,better known as ” El chapo”
broke out of his cell.
by crawling out of a hole in the shower.
the escape of chapo Guzman translates into two things:
and
El chapo was the leader of the sinoloa cartel .
a murderous criminal organization
that has killed thousands during mexico’s
violent drug wars.
their methods are brutal
but violence isn’t what makes El chapo different from other traffickers.
instead ,his legacy has been shaped by two abilities:
transporting more drugs across the borer than anyone else
and always finding a way to escape authorities.
that was , until now.
after being captured again in mexico
El chapo is standing trial in United States.
It’s the latest chapter for the world’s most powerful drug trafficker .
and to understand how el chapo got here .
it helps to look att a single innovation
the one tool that El chapo that El chapo used to transform the drug trade
is the same tool that made him its moste elusive target: tunnels.
“the tunnel king. ” master of tunnels” the king of tunnels.”prince of tunnels.”
its a magnificent feat of achitecture and enginerring and its like looking for a needle in a haystack.
there ‘s no realy any form of technology right now that can discover these tunnels being built.
The tub.
in 1990 , federal agents in douglas ,arizona found somethng new: a sophisticated drug tunnel from US to mexico.
and when investigators got insinde it , they were amazed by what they saw. the tunnel was 300 feet long and lit by an electrical system runingalong the wall.
at one end , alever eaised a hydraulic lift that opened an entrance in the safehouse floor.
one agent sad it was ! like something out of a james bond movie”.
in fact , it had been built by an architect working for El chapo.
and agents didn’t know it yet ,bit this was their forst sign of a major shift in the US drug trade.
1980s
US drug traffic had been dominated by cocaine coming through thecaribbean , but during next two decades US forces led a crackdown which changed the drug trade in two ways that put EL chapo in the right place at the right time .
first ,drug traffic shifted to routes through mexico
second , as national ,militaries worked with the US to destroy crops in south america.
traffckers focused on drugs they could grow elswhere.
the coca plant is only grown in the andes mountains
but marijuana can be grown in mexico.especially in mountain ranges along the western coast.
and the same is true for the opium poppt , the raw ingredient processed to make heroin.
for both crops ,the densest region of cultivation includes the state of sinaloa , the home of El chapo.
El chapo also had the ideal way to move those drugs
unlike cocaine ,which is odorless and can be tightly packed into a vehicle , marijuana is bulky and has a strong smell.
but by using his tunnels , El chapo could get massive amounts
across the border quickly.
by 2o1o , El chapo had become the most powerful trafficker inthe countery.
and as the sinaloa cartel increased their power ,theor territory expanded to included the entire western half of the US border.
as their control spread west , one particular area became crucial to their operation: a suburb of san diego called otay mesa.california.
there are three reaspms why they chose otay mesa , and understanding them gives you a sense of how sophostocated El chapo’s operation really was.
first .it is near two major transportation hubs , tijuana and san diego, so drugs can quckly get to the border and out to dealers on the other side.
second .it’s an industrial area across the border from tijuana’s airport , meaning there’s a steady stream of noised and traffic that make it easy to go undetected.
the third reason ,is the soil . to the west is ocean, where the ground is too damp, and to the east the earth rises to become hatrd mountainous rock..
Otay mesa is located in between , and soil maps ashow a geological sweet spot where the soil is soft enough to dig by hand , but strong enough to support a tunnel .
this is the stair system , it’s about a 70 foot drop.
in november 2010
agents found a tunnel in otay mesa built by yhe sinaloa cartel.
inside , electricity powered lighting and a ventilation system..
along the floor , a rail system allowed workers to remove rubble during construction and then transport drugs once they started using it.
Tunnels like these can take serveral months and millions of dollars to build
but they’re worth it. the tunnels are so big that traffickers can move multiple tons of drugs at once.
as the sinaloa cartel continued building in otay mesa ,their tunnels got more impressive,
like building an entrance for one beneath
a bathroom floor.
El Chapo ‘s tunnels are dug s deep
that ground penetrating radar can’t detect them.
and at ground level ,the entrances are hidden in clever ways.
but el chapo wasn’t only buildingtnnels to smuggle drugs across the border.
in 2014 , authorities raided his safehouse int the sinaloan capital of culiacan,
but el chapo escaped by fleeing through a tunnel hidden beneath his bathtub.
a few days later ,authorities tracked him down in mazatlan,
where El chapo was captured and sent to Altiplano maximum security prison.
a year later .he was gone.
this was the largest tunnel ever built by sinaloa cartel it stretched nearly a mile to a farmhoue in a nearby field.
2014 a year before that field been empty.
beneath a hole in the floor, authorities found.
a motorcycle that El chapohad used to cruise through the tunnel in less than ten minutes.
in sinaloa , E lchapo’s supporters celebrated the spectacular escape.
but hisfreedom was short lived.
a few months later ,authorities broke into his hideout in los mochis , sinaloa , where he was arrested after a bloddy gun battle.
he escaped through a tunnel hidden behind his mirror that led into the sewer.
but aithoritires caught him a fewm hours later when he crawled out of a manhole and tried to flee town .
this time he was extradited to the US where he is on trial in new york york city.
authorities are so serious about security that they shut down the brooklyn bridge when El chapo is moved from hismanhattan jail cell to the courthouse.
but even as he sits in jail , El chapo’s legacy lives on.
2018, two major tunnels were discovered along the US border.
In Arizona , one stretched across from mexico to the back of an abandoned KFC.
and in california ,authorities found an unfinished tunnel that had been equipped with electricity
and ventilation systems that run on solar power.
another piece of his legacy also continues.
in 2018 ,drug violence contributed to more people being mirdered in mexico than ever before.
but as aspiring kingpins add to the violence in mexico
El chapo is back in his cell. at least, for now ……