El Chapo (JoaquĆn GuzmĆ”n) escaped from Mexican prisons twice: in 2001 and 2015. His first escape occurred following his 1993 arrest in Guatemala and extradition to Mexico. He was found guilty of drug trafficking and possession of firearms and was sentenced to more than 20 years in a maximum-security prison. In exchange for bribes, however, he was granted extensive liberties by prison authorities. El Chapo was allowed to continue managing the Sinaloa drug cartel and reportedly became its head in 1995. In 2001 he escaped with the help of corrupt prison guards. A subsequent investigation led to the arrest of many prison employees, including its warden.
El Chapo was not captured until 2014. The following year he once again escaped custody, this time fleeing the maximum-security Altiplano prison near Toluca. A shaft beneath the shower in his cell connected to a tunnel that was more than 1 mile (1.5 km) long, and it led to a house on a construction site. The roughly 5.6-feet- (1.7-meter-) high wood-reinforced tunnel had lighting and ventilation, indicating that it had been in the works for some time. (A motorcycle apparently had been used within the tunnel during its digging to remove soil.) A massive manhunt was mounted, and in 2016 El Chapo was arrested following a shoot-out. He was extradited to the United States the following year.