Months before El Chapo was extradited to the United States in January 2017, the drug lord already had a plan in place to escape from the same Mexican prison once fled in two years earlier.

In the coming months, as the infamous drug lord Joaquín Guzmán Loera is finally sentenced … The tunnel allegedly used by drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to escape from the Altiplano Federal Penitentiary, terminates at an unfinished building in Almoloya de Juarez, Mexico, July 12, 2015.

A trusted hitman for El Chapo kept a "murder room" in his mansion on the US border, which featured a drain on the floor to more easily clean up after slayings. If Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman thinks he’s going to escape from an American prison like he did from a Mexican penitentiary, he’s got another thing coming, a federal official said Friday. Exterior view of a half-built house used by "El Chapo" to escape from prison near the maximum security prison of Altiplano in Almoloya de Juarez, state of Mexico on July 12, 2015.

He was the most powerful criminal in the world and was being controlled at a prime security prison in Mexico, however, that wasn’t enough to stop el Chapo from breaking out.

How El Chapo Escaped in a Sewer, Naked With His Mistress Victor Vazquez, a special agent supervisor for the D.E.A., was part of the team that …

El Chapo’s escape from jail was branded the escape of the millennium. El Chapo's second prison escape Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who spent more than 10 years on the run after escaping from prison in 2001, made another break in July 2015. Because they’re gonna have him as the top 10 high risk of all federal prison inmates, I can’t imagine how he would even think about escaping.

LCN: El Chapo is known as an escape artist. El Chapo escaped from a Jalisco prison in 2001 by hiding inside a laundry cart and fled the Altiplano prison in 2015 via a 1.5-kilometer-long tunnel that led into the shower area of his cell. The tunnel allegedly used by drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman to escape from the Altiplano Federal Penitentiary, terminates at an unfinished building in Almoloya de Juarez, Mexico, July 12, 2015. Any chance of an escape? Hood: He’s going to be sitting there 23 hours a day, in an 84 square foot room with cement bed, desk…the whole thing.

[Update: El Chapo was sentenced to life in prison.]

Chapo had friends in high places and military of people serving to his escape. Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera (Spanish: [xoaˈkin aɾtʃiˈβaldo ɣuzˈman loˈeɾa]; born 4 April 1957), commonly known as "El Chapo" ("Shorty", pronounced [el ˈtʃapo]) because of his 168 cm (5 ft 6 in) stature, is a Mexican drug lord and former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, an international crime syndicate.He is considered to have been the most powerful drug trafficker in the world.