If there’s one person the U.S. authorities
don’t want escaping from prison it’s the notorious Mexican drug kingpin, one Joaquín
"El Chapo" Guzmán. This man from meager beginnings, the son of
a farming family from Sinaloa, became an enemy number one of the United States and a very
rich man, too. They have him locked up now, but El Chapo
has escaped from prison before, not once, but twice, so it goes without saying that
right now he is guarded like no one else on the planet. Could this criminal Houdini get out again? Let’s have a look. First let’s see how he managed to escape
from prison the first time. In 1993, the LA Times ran the headline, “Mexico
Arrests Reputed Top Drug Kingpin.” He was arrested in Guatemala, not far from
the Mexican border. The charges against him were murder, kidnapping
and of course drug-trafficking. The authorities said he was behind a huge
trafficking operation and a massive tunnel that ran from Tijuana-to-San Diego where drugs
were carried through. Digging tunnels, as you will see, was something
of a forte for Guzman and his crew. He was extradited to Mexico and got 20 years,
nine months, to be served in a maximum security prison. There it’s said he controlled the place
and lived in comfort, with the guards doing what he told them to do. While he could easily run his operations from
there, as time went by he feared extradition to the U.S. It was time to go. It was January 19, 2001, when he made this
first escape. A prison guard named Francisco "El Chito"
Camberos Rivera opened the electronic door to his cell when Guzman hid himself in a laundry
basket. He was pushed through a series of doors and
eventually got out of the main door. From there he was taken in the trunk of a
car to a designated spot, and when the time was right he took off into the night. Like that, he was gone. It might sound too easy, but it was found
out he not only had guards on his payroll but also the prison director. Even the cops were paid to make his getaway
into the night that much easier. This turned out to be a bit of an embarrassment
for the Mexican authorities. All the bribes Guzman paid added up to about
$2.5 million. So, this could never happen again, right? Wrong. He kept on doing what he did and became Mexico’s
most wanted man, but despite that he managed to evade capture. Then on 22 February, 2014, after an operation
between Mexican and U.S. authorities, he was captured again. They had him, and they thought that was it. He was not going to bribe his way out of prison
this time. When being moved around he was surrounded
by the military and police. Even the A-Team couldn’t have made a plan
come together to extricate this guy from the arms of the law. This time he was locked up in a very restricted
area. His cell had no widows and he had little contact
with anyone. He had a spartan cell and this time no luxuries. A bed, a shelf, a shower, a toilet bowl and
a basin, that’s what he got. He was allowed some visits and he had the
right to receive the maximum amount of money to buy hygiene products. That was about US$48, not so much for a man
who had millions. He could take an hour out of his cell a day,
but the guards were told not to communicate with him. How on Earth could he escape a second time
then? Well, on 11 July, 2015, he did just that. You see, there was a blind spot for the security
cameras and that was where the shower was. At close to 9 pm that night he was seen going
to that part of the cell, and that’s where he vanished. Prior to that, for months El Chapo’s men
had been digging a tunnel and the end point was at that shower cell. The digging had been so noisy at times some
of the other inmates had complained about the strange noises. El Chapo’s wife, Emma Coronel, played a
big part in orchestrating the escape. El Chapo had land not far from the prison
where the digging began, and he had even managed to get a smartwatch smuggled into his cell
so the diggers knew the coordinates. This was some escape and the tunnel even had
ventilation and lighting. To get out fast El Chapo used a motorbike,
but it was specially made to run on rails. This contraption was also used for the excavation
process. Authorities later said the tunnel was 0.93
miles (1.5 km) long, 5 feet 7 inches (1.7 meters) high and 30 inches (75 cm) in width. It was 33 feet (10 meters) underground, so
El Chapo used a ladder to get down there. He was a free man again, but his freedom didn’t
last very long. After an armed raid at a residence on 8 January,
2016, Guzman managed to get away, once again using tunnels. He was captured shortly after, though. Now the USA wanted him, again, and proceedings
got the on the way to extradite him. Guzman’s men tried anything to prevent this
from happening, and even assassinated a federal judge. It didn’t work. He was finally extradited on January 19, 2017,
to the USA, exactly 18 years after this first prison escape. Right after his sentencing, in which he received
life in prison plus 30 years, he just disappeared. That’s because on his way to prison the
safest bet was to take him to an undisclosed location. Even Guzman’s lawyers didn’t know where
he was. It was later revealed that he ended up at
what’s called America’s highest security prison. That is the United States Penitentiary Administrative
Maximum Facility, in Florence, Colorado. It’s known in short as ADX Florence. This is where the worst of the worst go, in
prison terms it’s the end of the road. There are way more guards here to the number
of inmates than at other prisons. Inmates are locked up 23 hours a day. When they are allowed out, it may come at
any time, day or night, so even if somehow a plan could be devised the people on the
outside wouldn’t know when their guy was out of his cell. The 7 by 12 feet (2.1 by 3.6 meters) cell
has a bed, a stool and a desk all made of poured concrete. The cells are soundproofed so prisoners can’t
shout and communicate with others. The inmates never know where they are in the
facility because they never see through a window that will allow them to guess their
location. Even when they can exercise it is not a yard,
but like an empty swimming pool so they can’t see over the walls. It’s not a big one, either, and it only
takes ten steps to walk from end to end. All over the prison there are motion detectors
and cameras and the thick steel doors can only be opened with the remote control. Officers monitor all parts of the prison from
a control room and if anything strange should happen they can hit a panic button which will
automatically lock every door in the prison. The prison also has pressure pads, so an alert
is sent if someone should stand on one of those pads. If someone could somehow get past the pressure
pads and cameras and get outside they would have to scale a 12-foot-tall (3.7 meter) razor
wire fence, and they’d have to do that in front of heavily armed guards in one of the
many towers. Other guards walk around with attack dogs. It’s very likely that Guzman is also in
the most secure unit of this ultra-secure prison, which is called, “Range-13.” By the way, guards at this prison are vetted
to prevent anyone corrupt getting a job. While working they are told to communicate
with prisoners as little as possible. It’s escape proof is what most people say,
and it’s not a nice place to end up. A former warden once described it like this:
“The Supermax is life after death. It's long term. In my opinion, it's far much worse than death.” Others have said how eerily quiet the place
is because no two inmates move at the same time. It’s very clean, everything is spotless,
so when journalists have gone in there they have been very surprised. It might look as bright as heaven if it weren’t
hell. In fact, that’s how one warden described
it, like a clean version of hell. He told 60 Minutes, “I don't know what hell
is, but I do know the assumption would be, for a free person, it's pretty close to it." This is how one inmate described it, “The
purpose is to gradually tear a person down mentally and physically, through environmental
and physical deprivation.” For an inmate, it’s kind of like having
the place to yourself. Some people have said because it’s like
this the only way a person could escape would be if they actually had the prison warden
in their pocket, which is never going to happen. There are only around 400 inmates, some of
whom include Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber and Terry Nichols, the Oklahoma City bomber. Just to get near the place you’d be spotted
and Guzman can forget about buying land near it. This prison is in a remote location; there’s
not much for miles around. Guzman has had visitors, but only his lawyer
and his two daughters have been allowed to see him. He cannot actually touch anyone who visits
him. He told his lawyer because of the oppressive
conditions he regularly throws up, has headaches, and also sinus trouble. He said it’s very hard to sleep because
the lights are on all the time. If prisoners do want a break from the monotony
they at least have a TV, but that only plays religious and educational programs. This is how another person who is retired
from the prison described this place: "Supermax is austere, and it is run with absolute structure
and security in mind. From an operational perspective, it's the
most secure prison on earth.” But if the man known as Papillon escaped from
the notorious Devil's Island penal colony, and if those three guys really did escape
from Alcatraz, maybe no prison on Earth is one hundred percent secure. Just about anyone in the corrections business
would disagree, but maybe El Chapo could get out of this one. What are the chances of Mr. Guzman escaping
from the place nicknamed the “Alcatraz of the Rockies”? Let’s think about it. If he were to get out of his cell maybe he’d
have to do that by bribing a guard, but they have been vetted. Perhaps the only way a guard would offer him
help would be because Guzman’s men had kidnapped his family. But as only one man moves at a time, that
prisoner is being watched from the control room. We just don’t think he could go out of the
front door. He certainly couldn’t get past those pressure
pads, the guards in the towers, the guards with the dogs, and over a massive fence that
would cut him to pieces. All the time, everything is caught on CCTV. He would need a small army on the outside
and since the location is in the middle of nowhere, that army would be seen. Even if he employed some great hacker to hack
the prison system and open the doors, he’d still have to face heavily armed guards. We can’t see this happening outside of a
Hollywood movie. But, prisoners do have rights to see medical
professionals never mind how secure they are. This is U.S. law, so perhaps an escape could
be made if El Chapo had to make a trip to a hospital. Possibly a catastrophic event such as an earthquake
or a fire could result in an escape, but this is pretty unlikely. If prisoners were suddenly removed from their
cells they’d be shackled, so they wouldn’t get anywhere fast. In conclusion, we think that El Chapo won’t
be going anywhere. This prison is a techno-fortress that no man
could escape from. The only scenario that he gets out is in a
screenplay which involves an apocalyptic event shutting down all the systems and the guards
being eaten by monsters, after which El Capo sneaks out the back door and begins a mission
of survival. He’ll be doing no digging out of prison
this time and no one will be holding out their hand and accepting a bribe. Now we are going to serve you up something
special. Try checking out this video over here or this
video right here. We can promise they’re both more entertaining
than a stint in a supermax prison!
