More arrests over 'El Chapo' prison escape in Mexico

Mexican authorities have arrested 13 more people over the spectacular escape of drug kingpin Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman from a maximum security prison in June, officials said.

Those placed in custody include Leonor Garcia, the former legal director at El Altiplano, the prison from which Guzman fled, a source at the prosecutor's office told AFP Friday.

Also detained was Celina Oseguera, the former national coordinator of the federal prison system. The eleven other suspects were guards and personnel at El Altiplano, where they will now be held, the source said.

Oseguera and Garcia are being held at the female prison in Tepic, in the western state of Nayarit.

The Mexican government immediately put Oseguera on leave after Guzman -- head of the Sinaloa drug cartel -- escaped on July 11.

A total of 20 officials have now been arrested in connection with the escape.
Mexican investigators say that Guzman, Mexico's most powerful drug lord, had key inside information to ease his escape, as well as support or acquiescence from prison insiders.

Guzman's escape, in which he crawled through a hole leading to a huge tunnel under his cell shower, was a major embarrassment to President Enrique Pena Nieto's administration.

He served just 17 months of his lengthy prison sentence.

Guzman had broken out of another Mexican prison in 2001 and was caught 13 years later in Mazatlan, a tourist resort on the Pacific coast.

A $3.8 million reward is being offered for Guzman's arrest.
Source: AFP