Live
Audio Only
Almost four weeks after the escape of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the U.S. government released a statement saying it believes the world's most powerful and most wanted drug lord is still in Mexico. Guzman is more than likely in Sinaloa state, they say, a suspicion shared by a source with teleSUR immediately after his alleged jailbreak.
Chuck Rosenberg, acting head of the Drug Enforcement Agency, told reporters U.S. federal agents are working with Mexican authorities on the recapture of Guzman, who supposedly fled the maximum security Almoloya de Juarez jail through a mile-long tunnel leading directly from his cell to an empty house.
RELATED: Peña Nieto Sanctioned El Chapo’s Escape
“Where is he (Guzman) probably the safest and best protected?” Rosenberg asked during a press conference and replied. “Probably in Sinaloa.”
Guzman and his closest associate, Ismael “El Mayo” Zambada, run the Sinaloa cartel. They control large swaths of land, from just outside the Sinaloan capital Culiacan all the way up to Badiraguato, the municipality where El Chapo was born.
He also said he was "not terribly surprised" to find out that Guzman had broken out of prison for a second time. In 2001, he escaped the El Puente Grande maximum security jail in the northern state of Jalisco and was recaptured early 2014.
The DEA official criticized the Mexican government, saying it had “institutional problems” that make sharing intelligence gathering very difficult.
"We have sources in Mexico we can work closely with. It doesn't extend throughout the entire government," he said at the briefing with reporters.
Rosenberg said the FBI, U.S. Marshals Service and the State Department are involved in the recapture of Guzman.
His statement comes the same day the DEA launched a new poster offering a US$5-million reward for information that will lead to Guzman's recapture. Mexico has offered close to US$4 million.
WATCH: Authorities New About El Chapo’s Escape Plans
Newsletter
