Chapo’s tunnel would have been more than a year in planning
The kind of tunnel that led Mexico's most powerful drug lord to freedom would have been more than a year in planning.
The world’s most powerful drug lord, Joaquín Guzmán Loera, a.k.a., "El Chapo," escaped last weekend from Mexico’s highest-security prison, sparking an international manhunt.
Below are some numbers to help understand the scope of El Chapo's power.
$1 billion
Forbes magazine estimated Guzmán’s worth to be a billion dollars naming him one of the “World’s Most Powerful People.”
$50 million
In a video interview with Univision, Pablo Escobar’s right hand man estimated that El Chapo’s most recent escape probably cost about $50 million to pull off. The costs are due to the complexity of digging a tunnel a mile long, including the need for sensitive sonar equipment and bribing guards.
$8.8 million
The Mexican government is offering a 60 million peso reward, or about $3.8 million, for information leading to El Chapo's capture. The U.S. State Department is offering a similar reward for up to $5 million.
$2,000-$100,000
A kilo of cocaine can be bought for around $2,000 in Colombia or Peru. By the time it arrives in Mexico, that same kilo is worth $10,000. Wholesale in the United States, that kilo goes for $30,000, but on the streets of, say, Chicago, that same kilo could be worth around $100,000.
10,000
According to one estimate, El Chapo may have murdered or ordered the murders of more than 10,000 people.
50
The Sinaloa Cartel has a presence in some 50 countries around the world, stretching from the Americas to Southeast Asia.
45
El Chapo’s Sinaloa Cartel controls, by one estimate, 45 percent of the drug trade in Mexico.
30
The tunnel used by El Chapo to escape from prison on July 11 was more than 30 feet underground.
25
Guzmán’s Sinaloa Cartel is responsible for an estimated 25 percent of the drugs that cross the Mexican border into the United States.
14.6
The number of homicides in Mexico in 2014 dropped by 14.6 percent to 15,653 victims compared to 2013. Some attribute this drop, at least partly, to the arrest of El Chapo in February 2014.
2
Guzmán has managed to escape twice from Mexico’s two maximum-security prisons. On Jan. 19, 2001, Guzmán escaped from the Puente Grande prison, apparently with help from prison guards, possibly hidden inside a laundry cart. On July 11, 2015, El Chapo escaped from the country’s highest-security prison, Altiplano prison in Almoloya, through an underground tunnel.
1
Guzmán was designated as “Public Enemy Number 1” in Chicago after he escaped.
For complete coverage on Joaquín Guzmán go to The Hunt for El Chapo.
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