Mexico Arrests Former Prison Chiefs over 'El Chapo' Escape

Mexican authorities arrested 13 more people over the escape of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, including government officials and prison chiefs.

With Saturday’s arrests, 20 people have so far been arrested since his escape from the high-security Altiplano prison in central Mexico in July.

Mexico’s attorney general’s office said late Friday in a statement that 13 people were arrested in connection with Guzman’s escape but it did not give details.

Sources close to the prosecutor told Reuters news agency that Valentin Cardenas, the former director of the Altiplano prison in central Mexico, and Celina Oseguera, former director of Mexico’s federal prisons, were arrested along with 11 prison guards.

After Guzman's escape, both Oseguera and Cardenas were dismissed from their positions.

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The news comes days after a federal court said that two members of Mexico's intelligence agency, CISEN, and two guards from Guzman's prison, had been charged with helping the drug cartel head escape.

Investigators believe that the most wanted drug lord in the world had received inside help from prison officials and guards as well as external help from government officials in order to execute his escape through a tunnel dug up from his cell.

The cartel head’s escape is seen by analysts as a blow to the administration of Enrique Peña Nieto, which has been plagued by numerous corruption and human rights scandals.

Guzman was first arrested in Guatemala in 1993 and then extradited to Mexico, where he was sentenced to 20 years in prison for drug trafficking. He escaped from a maximum security prison with the assistance of prison guards in 2001, but was recaptured in Feb. 2014.

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