New surveillance video of Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s escape from a maximum security prison features audio that shows prison guards should have been aware of the prison break.
The previously unseen and unheard footage was leaked to the Mexican broadcaster Televisa where loud drilling and hammering sounds can be heard prior to Guzman’s July 11 escape.
In the new clip, the 58-year-old Sinaloa cartel boss lays on his bed under a blanket while watching television when the loud hammering suddenly begins to ring out at approximately 8:46 p.m. Guzman then turns up the volume on the portable television set in an attempt drown out the noise as his accomplices drill a hole through the floor under the shower in his cell.
READ MORE: Tour of El Chapo’s tunnel shows audacity of drug lord’s escape
At 8:52 p.m. Guzman steps into his cell’s private shower and disappears from the camera’s view six minutes after the noises began.
The video also shows a split screen of the prison control room, where two agents were assigned to watch over Guzman while he was detained in Altiplano prison near Mexico City.
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It wasn’t until 9:29 p.m., 37 minutes after Guzman slipped out that guards finally ventured into his cell door and discovered the tunnel.
In late September, Mexico’s federal prosecutor announced that the former head of the federal prisons office and the ex-director of the Altiplano penitentiary along with 13 additional people were arrested in the jail break.
Mexico’s interior ministry had previously been accused of hiding a video with sounds of power tools and hammering amid the ongoing scandal.
“The video exists and is crucial in identifying the level of complicity in (El) Chapo’s escape,” Sen. Alejandro Encinas, secretary of the Mexican Congress’ Bicameral Committee on National Security , told EFE Agencia.
“(Prison employees) responsible for monitoring (Guzman) have been formally charged in recent days, but that’s not enough because the mere fact that the sound of a power drill was heard means there were several levels of complicity.”
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