The Untold Story Of The World's Greatest Prison Escapee

This is Puente Grande Prison, the most fortified prison in Mexico. It's known for the large number of guards, two guards for each inmate, because the prison was dedicated to the most dangerous criminals in Mexico. On top of them were drug gang leaders. These are not ordinary criminals. These are the leaders of tens of thousands of armies and followers heavily armed with all imaginable weapons. So attacking the prison suddenly is Therefore, the prison walls were doubly fortified, with heavy concrete reinforced with the strongest type of steel, watchtowers, heavily armed guards, and checkpoints along the road to the prison. The prison was like a military base. This was the prison where El Chapo was imprisoned, the most famous and dangerous drug lord in Mexican history and worldwide. He is the Sinaloa cartel leader, the most dangerous drug gang in the world. It was named after the Sinaloa state where they came from. El Chapo had been pursued for a long time and was arrested for the first time in 1993 after a heavy chase by the Mexican authorities. Although El Chapo was arrested, this didn't prevent him from running his empire from inside the prison. He did it through bribery. He bribed every single officer and guard in prison, with bribes worth millions, which granted him comfort. He lived the king's life in prison. They got him alcohol, women, and all the food he wanted. They even used to allow his two wives and his mistresses to visit him and stay with him for days. Moreover, he had phones to keep running his gang from inside the prison. The person who facilitated El Chapo's life most inside the prison was this man, Damaso Lopez. Damaso was deputy chief of security at Puente Grande prison. El Chapo bribed this man to the point that he became his right hand. He gave him a house, a car, gifts, and a huge salary. This strengthened their relationship and they became friends. So Damaso was the main reason El Chapo was at a to the extent that he could do whatever he wanted. El Chapo, during his imprisonment period, was not only able to run his gang, but he was also able to develop a new way for drug trafficking from inside the prison. This way wasn't his creation, but he and his gang made a revolution in it, which is drug trafficking through tunnels. El Chapo hired engineers, architects, and specialists to dig tunnels at a professional level. Certainly, El Chapo, through this tunnel, was targeting the U.S. It was the most profitable place for them. El Chapo and his gang, Sinaloa Cartel, didn't need to smuggle drugs anymore, neither by air, sea, or land. They became smugglers through underground tunnels, which enabled them to raise the rate of smuggling insanely. They began to make 20 million dollars per month. Imagine that El Chapo's empire was expanded and grew while he was in prison more than the time he was out. Mexico didn't extradite drug gang leaders like El Chapo to the U.S., which was always calling for this. Because they were the ones most affected, a huge quantity of drugs had been smuggled to the U.S. So they were always asking for El Chapo's extradition and criminals like him since U.S. prisons are more fortified than Mexico's. Besides, they would be far away from their gangs and the officers they bribed, so that they would no longer have any control over their gangs. But the Mexican authorities were refusing such claiming that they were able to handle their criminals. This made El Chapo relieved, seeing that he was doing whatever he wanted in Puente Grande prison. He had never thought about a breakout. However, in 2001, the Mexican Supreme Court submitted a proposal to create a new law that would allow the extradition of some Mexican criminals to America. El Chapo felt in danger when he first heard about the new law of Mexican criminal extradition, so he immediately started planning an escape, which must be carried out as soon as possible. A few weeks later, El Chapo had already formulated a solid plan and began to carry it out. El Chapo was already aware that only a few people should be involved in the plan, so he gave a huge bribe to his assistant Demaso and explicitly told him that he wanted to escape. Demaso replied and assured him that he would help him. El Chapo agreed with his friend Demaso to reduce the number of guards on January 19, 2001, which was the day El Chapo planned to escape. Of course, Demaso would not reduce the number of guards in the entire prison, but rather in the section where El Chapo was. El Chapo also bribed one of the prison workers named Chito. This was one of the workers responsible for the laundry. His main task was to take the dirty clothes from the inmates and put them inside a cart that he took outside the prison and placed in a van that would take it to the laundry facility. Chito was the best choice for El Chapo because he was a normal worker out of sight, he only did his usual daily tasks, and none of the guards cared about him. The D-Day had come. On January 19, 2001, Chito opened El Chapo's cell, helped him get into the covered him with clothes, and pushed the cart. They were able to do all of this comfortably due to the low number of guards in that section. In one moment, while Chito was pushing the cart, he reached one of the prison gates where there was a guard. Chito stopped the cart and left it to talk with the guard and ask him to open the gate. But due to El Chapo's weight, the cart began to move backward on its own. At that moment, El Chapo was scared that the cart would hit the wall, flip over, and he would fall out, and then they would be exposed. But his friend Chito quickly rushed and ran behind the cart and held it before hitting the wall. He moved on his way normally to the prison parking lots, where a car was waiting for them. El Chapo immediately got into the trunk, and they drove out of the prison. By the way, the car was driven by one of the bride guards. For this reason, when they went out of the prison exit gate, no one stopped them or even searched the car. They let them out immediately. Despite the escape being quickly exposed, the pursuit was delayed because the majority of the local police were in El Chapo's pocket. They didn't make a move right away, giving him the chance to go far away from the prison. Afterward, the federal police got the news of El Chapo's escape, and this police force is hard to bribe, unlike the local police. The federal forces began the pursuit while El Chapo's men were waiting for him somewhere near the prison. When he reached them, they changed his car and took him in an armored car to another place where a helicopter was waiting for them. He got in the helicopter, and they took him to another location where another armored car was waiting. They moved him to four different locations so that he couldn't be tracked. The last car El Chapo took was in Mexico City. While they were driving in the streets, El Chapo took a look around him to find out that he was surrounded by police cars and motorcycles. He was so stressed and worried that he asked the driver about how they managed to track his location. The driver reassured him that he had nothing to worry about because all of the police were actually there for his protection. El Chapo took a deep breath and felt relieved. The corrupt police were surrounding him so that the real police couldn't reach him. No one would ever expect that El Chapo would be escorted by that many police cars. They went alongside him until they reached one of the gang's safe houses. El Chapo's breakout in 2001 had made him a legend, to the point that most people began to think that he was above the law and untouchable. Although the Mexican authorities devoted considerable resources to the pursuit of El Chapo, they were unable to reach him, and El Chapo remained free for 14 years. During these years, El Chapo was moving between his secret safe houses, many of which were in isolated areas in the mountains. During these 14 years, El Chapo's empire grew insanely. He used to smuggle cocaine to America worth billions of dollars annually. El Chapo's gang expansion and the areas they have taken control of in Mexico have reached an unprecedented level. The Sinaloa cartel had become the largest drug cartel in the world uncontested, to the extent that it was considered the largest in history, surpassing the Medellin cartel, which was Escobar's cartel. Reaching this level of power, influence, and control is impossible without violence. Therefore, acts of violence were insane, especially in the northern cities of Mexico, the cities that are bordered by America, because they are used in drug trafficking, so it was like a war. El Chapo and his gang turned these cities into war zones, causing a lot of unprecedented killings and mass destruction. El Chapo managed to destroy all the gangs, one after the other, taking over the northern areas. This made him the largest and sole dominator of the drug trafficking movement from Mexico to America. The American and Mexican authorities wanted to arrest him at any cost, and for this mission, they utilized all their most powerful resources. In 2014, 14 years after El Chapo's escape, Mexican intelligence, with the help of its American counterpart, decided to pursue a new strategy, which was to track down the people around El Chapo, his sons, wives, and close associates, because they were the ones who knew El Chapo the most. Thanks to their new strategy, they managed to reach El Chapo's technical assistant. This young man was a Colombian in his 20s. The intelligence managed to convince him to work for their benefit, and with his assistance, they were able to hack the encrypted communication network used by El Chapo and his gang. This way, they managed to identify his location and know that he was in a house in Sinaloa, which is the headquarters of the gang. The house is one of El Chapo's safe houses. They identify the house's location, and exactly on February 17, 2014, the Mexican special forces, along with DEA agents, surrounded the house and stormed it. The house wasn't ordinary. Behind the house's main door, there was another steel door. The special forces kept beating this door, trying to break it. At the same time, El Chapo was sleeping inside. All of a sudden, his assistant entered his room screaming and told him that the he jumped out of bed, hearing the sounds of hitting on the steel door. So he got up from his place and started to move. The forces that were outside the house were able to see movements through windows. They saw that there were people moving inside. So, they intensified the beating on the door even more. The windows were also fortified. All the house was armored, and due to the fact that the windows were small, making it difficult to enter through them, all their focus and efforts were on the door. They kept beating the door until it was broken. Then they entered the house with their weapons raised, ordering all the people that were inside to surrender and lie down on the ground. However, they were surprised when they found out that no one was inside the house. They searched every single room and every corner of the house, but no one was there, although they saw shadows moving inside the house when they were outside. Where did El Chapo go? When his assistant entered the room to alert him, El Chapo got up from his bed and went immediately to the bathroom, not to hide, but rather to escape through a tunnel. El Chapo's gang has become professional and has expertise in digging tunnels, not only for drug smuggling, but also for escaping. All their safe houses had underground tunnels. In case the house was surrounded by the police, El Chapo would immediately run out of the house easily. El Chapo managed to escape through a tunnel dug under the bathtub, and this is a real image of the tunnel after it was discovered by the Mexican authorities. The entrance of the tunnel was smartly designed so that no one would find out unless he knew about it. To open the secret entrance, a pin must be inserted into a small opening behind the bathroom mirror. This would create an electric current that would unlock the lock holding the bathtub. Then it must be lifted by hands. The bathtub would raise easily thanks to the hydraulic arms that support it from underneath. When El Chapo entered the tunnel, he pulled the bathtub out and closed it behind him. For this reason, the storming forces took their time searching the house until discovering the secret entrance. El Chapo managed to escape with his wife, his assistant, and his chef through the tunnel, and by the time the special forces found out about the tunnel entrance, El Chapo and those with him had already vanished. El Chapo decided to go to a normal place, a place where nobody would think he would be there. Instead of going to one of his isolated safe houses, he went to a coastal city named Mezatlan. It is a touristic city, and no one would expect that he might be there. But what El Chapo didn't know was that his communication network was hacked. He thought the Mexican authorities found his safe house from where he escaped by coincidence, but he didn't know that they might find him wherever he went. Five days after he escaped from the safe house, exactly on February 22, 2014, the Mexican authorities along with the American agents tracked El Chapo's location in one of the city hotels named Miramar, where they managed to surround him and arrest him easily in his room. The attached image is a real picture of him at the moment of his arrest. He had no protection or guards, and he didn't expect they would easily identify his location because he basically didn't know how they were tracking him or that his phone was hacked. After El Chapo's second arrest, they took him to Altiplano Prison, which is a maximum security prison and the most fortified prison in Mexico. You may be wondering why they didn't take him to this prison the first time. For the simple reason that El Chapo's first arrest was in 1993. Altiplano Prison was just established at that time, and it wasn't as fortified as it was in 2014 when El Chapo was arrested for the second time. This prison was like a military base due to the abundance of guards, weapons, and equipment within it. The outer wall is surrounded by a and each tower is manned by three or four armed guards carrying heavy weapons. Although the prison walls are nets, they are doubled in two layers, and sometimes in three layers in certain prison areas. This net fence is constructed and reinforced by heavy concrete with a full meter of thickness. There were even ditches. All these fortifications were to prevent any external attack. As we mentioned before, the imprisoned criminals had special armies, so they had to be ready for any external attack. They even have armored vehicles in the prison. In addition to the fact that the entire prison area is a no-fly zone, there are sources that say that they have anti-aircraft weapons in anticipation of any air attacks, not to mention the broken communication networks in the entire prison area, which means that all mobile phones wouldn't work inside the And the most important thing is that the officers and guards in this prison are carefully hired to prevent all sorts of bribery. Although the prison had the biggest criminals and gang leaders in Mexico, none of them managed to escape until the arrival of El Chapo. As soon as El Chapo entered the prison, he began to think about an escape plan because he was afraid of being extradited to America at any moment. Since the mobile phones were not working inside the prison, the only way he had to communicate with the outside world was through the people that were allowed to visit him in prison, which were actually two people. The first was his lawyer, Scar Lopez, and the second was his third wife, Ima Cornell, his young wife, whom he married in 2007, and she was 32 years younger than him. El Chapo began coordinating with his wife so that she could convey his messages to his children and followers. His four children were all leaders in his gang, but after his imprisonment, no one of them took the leadership of the gang. El Chapo had another man who wasn't a family member. He considered him his right hand. This man was Demaso Lopez, the deputy chief of security in Puente Grande prison, and the corrupt official who allowed El Chapo to do whatever he wanted in that prison. After El Chapo's escape in 2001, Demaso was blamed and considered an accomplice, so he was fired and couldn't find a job. As it was mentioned before, Demaso and El Chapo were friends, which is why El Chapo asked him to join the gang. Over the years, Demaso kept getting promoted until he became El Chapo's right hand in the gang, and the leader of the gang after El Chapo's second imprisonment. Demaso turned from a prison security official to the leader of the world's most powerful drug cartel. Now, El Chapo began to communicate with his right hand Demaso and his children from inside the prison through his wife, and started moving them so they could get him out of prison as soon as possible before his extradition to America. He was really scared of this. Demaso and El Chapo's children started putting together a plan to get their leader out of prison. Since Demaso was an ex-security official in one of the most fortified prisons in Mexico, this gives him an advantage in planning because he knows the security system in prisons. On the other side, El Chapo, inside the prison, spent most of his time in his cell. He was only allowed to go out for one hour a day. There was also a GPS tracker attached to his ankle all the time. His cell was under 24-hour surveillance. There were cameras inside his cell, and the shower was behind that small wall just to give him some privacy. El Chapo knew that it was almost impossible to escape from this prison, but he was persistent in doing it at any cost. And since we are talking about El Chapo and his gang, it is obvious that a tunnel would be included in the plan. The beginning of the digging wouldn't be from inside the prison. The tunnel must be dug outside the prison, leading inside the prison. This may be the first time in history we always hear about prisoners digging a tunnel to escape from prison, but a prisoner and his followers digging a tunnel for him from outside the prison is almost impossible. The plan's first step is to buy a close enough to the prison that they could dig a tunnel that leads to the prison, but at the same time, it shouldn't be closed in a way that attracts attention. The problem was that Altiplano Prison was located in an isolated area and surrounded by large agricultural areas. The prison was a huge facility in the middle of a vast area of agricultural land with no buildings around. After a tiring search, El Chapo's gang managed to find an empty construction site about a kilometer and a half from the prison. It was most likely used by farmers. It was like an uncompleted building. The gang bought this land and registered it in the name of a person who was not suspicious. The land became theirs and they now had a starting point from which they could begin digging. But it's not that simple. How would they know El Chapo's cell exactly? Besides, the cell is under heavy surveillance, and even if they managed to dig the tunnel and reach the cell, how would they get him out without being exposed? The only blind spot is that small shower behind the small wall. Therefore, the only place where the tunnel exit should be is that little shower square, but how? How could they dig an underground tunnel from outside the prison with almost a kilometer and a half in length without seeing anything and open an opening specifically in that small place? The plan seems impossible. Reaching the cell itself is a great achievement, let alone reaching that particular small spot. To solve this problem, El Chapo got a brilliant idea that would help his men identify his cell location and exactly that small space behind the wall. The idea was inspired by the GPS tracker that was on his ankle. The idea was simply to smuggle a GPS to him, which he would put in that shower space so the men digging the tunnel could easily identify the exact location. The idea was perfect, but the problem was smuggling the GPS device. Altiplano was the most fortified prison in Mexico, and smuggling anything inside the prison was almost impossible. There were many checkpoints inside and outside the and they wouldn't allow the passage of any tool that might be used to escape or as a weapon. El Chapo got another smart idea. He asked his wife to tell the gang to insert the small GPS device in a watch. This way, it could cross all the checkpoints normally. His wife managed to smuggle the watch to him easily. No one suspected her. It was just a normal watch that wouldn't pose any danger. Or rather, that's what the guards thought. Through that watch and the GPS device, El Chapo's men managed to identify the exact location of that particular spot behind that small wall. El Chapo's men had already started the digging process towards the prison, but when they got the exact location, they knew how to point the digging 100% in the right direction. As we mentioned before, they were experts in digging tunnels, so the tunnel they dug was astonishing and professional engineering work at all levels. The entrance to the tunnel began at the building. By taking a look at the tunnel opening, you can see a colossal number of wooden supports. Then, once you enter the 10 meter deep tunnel, you will realize that the tunnel wasn't just an ordinary escape tunnel. It was meticulously built and undoubtedly the best escape tunnel ever built in prison breakout history. Such a tunnel required a lot of workers. There were most likely 10 to 12 people working non-stop on that tunnel. First, they needed a ventilation system, so they laid ventilation pipes along the kilometer they dug, and an air pumping machine was at the entrance of the tunnel. They also needed lighting. They hung thousands of light bulbs along the tunnel, and an electricity generator was also at the entrance of the tunnel. It was hidden, and they made it look like a cement grilling table. They had hidden everything. Nothing was exposed or visible from outside the brick building. This was necessary in case the security or guards suddenly searched. They wouldn't discover what was happening below unless they conducted a thorough inspection. This was crucial because they were located somewhat close to the prison. The scale of this operation was insane. Thousands of meters of ventilation pipes, thousands of lamps, and tons of sand were extracted from underground. They took them out and disposed of them without being exposed, especially since they were a kilometer and a half away from the prison. And the ground was flat and empty, so it is strange that none of the guards, especially those on the watchtowers, had noticed them. This proves that El Chapo's gang meticulously planned for this operation and had taken all their precautions. Moreover, inside the tunnel, they had also made a railroad on which they placed a customized excavation cart that seemed like it was integrated with a motorcycle, by which they were intending to transport the sand and later on to help their leader escape. Throughout the digging process, El Chapo was nervous and anxious. He was afraid of his extradition to America. For this reason, he was always sending letters to his men asking about why the process was taking so long. And they were always replying that the matter wasn't that simple, it required planning and effort, and they should be meticulous in what they were doing. Finally, in June 2015, El Chapo received news from his men that the tunnel was almost ready. El Chapo chose the 4th of July 2015 as the day of his escape. Why the 4th of July? Because he wanted to insult America. July 4th is a national day in America. It is the anniversary of Independence Day. It was a big day for the Americans. By this act, he intended to send an insulting message to them. He wanted to tell them that he managed to escape on the day of their joy. El Chapo had a huge hatred for America. Although all his money was from there, he knew how badly they wanted him, and he knew that the American authorities were always asking the Mexican authorities for his extradition. Unfortunately, his men didn't manage to make it. The tunnel still needed work, so they were forced to postpone the operation to a week later. Finally, the big day had come, the day of El Chapo's escape. On July 11, 2015, the day on which El Chapo would break out of the prison where he spent almost 16 months. This video footage is from the surveillance cameras that were in his cell. On that night, El Chapo was watching a comedy series on his small tablet with the volume up, attempting to conceal the sounds that his men were making while trying to open the hole. Each time, he got up from his place and walked around the room, waiting for a signal from his men. At 8.10, El Chapo sat on the edge of his bed, put his shoes on, and went to the shower space, the only hidden place from the surveillance cameras in the whole cell. Since that time, El Chapo has vanished. El Chapo entered the opening and went down through a ladder to the underground tunnel, where he met with his wife's brother, who pointed him to the cart and asked him to get on it. El Chapo got on the cart and drove it as fast as possible along the tunnel. When he reached the other side of the tunnel, he went up to the brick building where a quad bike was waiting for him. He rode it with one of his men and went. On the other side, the guards in the prison took 40 minutes to discover the escape. They noticed on the surveillance cameras that El Chapo wasn't in his cell. They went immediately to check on him. At first, they thought that he might be hiding behind that shower wall, but they were shocked when they found the opening of the tunnel. The sirens immediately blared, declaring a state of alert, but it was too late. By that time, El Chapo had already traveled a long distance. He then arrived at a big truck, got into the truck trailer, and his men tightly closed it so as not to be seen. Then, the truck drove for approximately two hours until it arrived at a town named San Juan, which is located in an area called Queretaro. El Chapo then got on a private jet, whose pilot was one of the most trusted by El Chapo and his whole gang. This time, El Chapo took all necessary precautions, not leaving anything to chance. There were two jets. The first would take El Chapo to his destination, and the second would fly to mislead everyone that might be pursuing him. El Chapo decided to go hide in one of his safe houses. It was like a castle that is located in the mountains in Sinaloa. It was the most fortified and safest place for El Chapo, which they used to call the sky. El Chapo's escape caused great embarrassment to the Mexican authorities because, just a year ago, they boasted of his arrest in front of the world, considering it the greatest achievement in the war against drugs and crime. The Mexican authorities have harnessed a large part of their forces and resources to hunt down El Chapo at any cost. If only El Chapo had kept hiding in his secret houses in the mountains, it would have been difficult for the authorities to track him. But El Chapo kept moving from one city to another, visiting his gang headquarters, meeting his followers, and giving them orders. This was very important to maintain his control and leadership over the gang, but it put him in danger and made his tracking easier. Especially since the Mexican authorities were supported by the Americans, they fully cooperated in El Chapo's case. The American authorities provided the Mexicans with all sorts of newly developed technologies for tracking and monitoring. The Mexican intelligence, with the help of the Americans, managed to locate a house in Los Mochis, which is a city in the north of Sinaloa State. In this house, the intelligence team noticed that there was a movement by El Chapo's gang. They started eavesdropping on them and noticed that they used the nickname Grandma to refer to a specific person. For example, they say, Grandma is coming. Prepare yourself for Grandma. It was clear that they meant a particular person by this nickname that seemed important, and the intelligence team suspected that it might be El Chapo himself. Indeed, the next day, a convoy of three cars arrived, so it was clear that this convoy was for an important person. The first time the cars arrived, they entered the garage directly, and the agents who were monitoring the place could not identify the person who was inside the car. So, the Mexican intelligence kept eavesdropping on their calls and monitoring the house for a period, during which they became almost sure that El Chapo was inside that house. This was confirmed after hearing his voice, or what appeared to be his voice, through eavesdropping on their calls, besides the fact that such preparations and protection wouldn't be for someone else but El Chapo. On the morning of January 8, 2016, six months after El Chapo's escape, the Mexican forces decided to storm the house. A group of special forces surrounded the place, backed by DEA agents, and stormed the house. Then a bloody armed conflict occurred between them and El Chapo's followers. It was violent, and all its victims were among the gang. As for the special forces, some of them were injured, but nobody died because of their meticulous and well-prepared attack. After the fight had ended, they didn't find El Chapo. He escaped for the second time through an underground tunnel. This mirror was a secret door that led to the underground tunnel. El Chapo escaped through the tunnel while his followers were fighting against the special forces. He escaped with one of his close assistants. When they came out of the tunnel, they stole a car that was passing on the street. The security forces weren't only surrounding the house. They were spread out in the whole area. When they received the news of El Chapo's escape, patrols started roaming the area right away. About 20 kilometers away from the house, at one of the checkpoints, four federal police officers managed to arrest El Chapo and his assistant. El Chapo right away attempted to bribe them, but unfortunately for him, they weren't corrupt officers, and they refused his bribe. This prompted him to get angry and start acting insanely. He began to insult and threaten them. However, the officers disregarded his threats, took a picture of him, and sent it to their commander, who told them that special forces were on their way to them, and warned them that El Chapo's men and associates were preparing for an attack by mobilizing all their forces to rescue their leader. He also ordered them to take shelter in a nearby motel and get prepared for any sudden potential attack from El Chapo's gang. The four officers and El Chapo took one of the motel rooms where they waited and monitored the situation. After a short while, they began to hear the sounds of cars approaching from a distance, as if it were a large procession moving slowly towards them. At that moment, El Chapo smirked maliciously and said to the police, now you probably wish you had accepted my offer. However, his smile quickly turned into a look of shock and despair as the procession of cars arrived, and he realized that those were not his men, but a massive number of soldiers from the army and special forces. They had surrounded the hotel and quickly secured all entrances and exits. El Chapo's men were taken aback. They couldn't even contemplate getting closer to the hotel once they saw the heavy presence of security forces in the area. El Chapo was arrested for the third time and sent to Altiplano Prison again, the prison from which he escaped the last time. But this time, El Chapo was under heavy surveillance. Nevertheless, imagine that he began to look for another way out and started to plan for an escape operation. He sent messages to his gang asking them to do it again. According to some of El Chapo's gang members, they had really started working on a new escape operation, and what made it weird was that they were planning to do it the same way. The Mexican authorities were already working on his extradition procedures to America. They had come to believe that this was the only solution. El Chapo escaped from Puente Grande in 2001. He had remained a fugitive for 14 years. He also escaped through a tunnel beneath the bathtub when they surrounded him in one of his safe houses. He also escaped from Altiplano Prison, the most fortified prison in Mexico, and escaped for the fourth time through the tunnel behind the mirror in another safe house. How long will they keep chasing him? If he stays in Mexico, he will surely find a way to escape because all of his men and followers are around him. But in the U.S., he would no longer be able to do anything. For this reason, the court was expediting his extradition procedures. Imagine that the judge who was working on his extradition file had been assassinated in October 2016. El Chapo's extradition to America had been postponed to a year later. But eventually, one day, in January 2017, El Chapo was surprised when the guards and soldiers entered his cell, tied him up, and took him to a helicopter that was in the prison yard. He was then taken to a special plane, and he hadn't realized what was going on yet. The plane landed in New York, and El Chapo got off the plane, trying to comprehend what was happening. He was confused, looking around to the right and left. El Chapo asked one of the DEA agents, where am I? The agent replied, you are in New York. And this is a picture of the most powerful drug gang leader in history, with tears in his eyes, a historical scene. El Chapo was tried in the U.S. The trial lasted for a long period during which many details, witnesses, and testimonies emerged. Eventually, in 2019, El Chapo was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 30 years. Currently, El Chapo is in a prison named ADX, or Florence Supermax. It is a prison located in Colorado, USA. This prison is considered the most powerful and secure prison in America. It houses inmates deemed extremely dangerous, even to other prisoners, which means that all the inmates are kept in solitary confinement, and even their interaction with the guards is limited. El Chapo spends 23 hours a day in his cell, and he is only allowed to go out for one hour to indoor places in prison under strict and heavy surveillance. I am pretty sure that El Chapo considered escaping many times, but I strongly believe that he has tears in his eyes when he realizes that he is far away from all his power and influence. We have reached the end of our story. Thank you for watching. Don't forget to like and subscribe to more videos.