Mexican prison guards ignore El Chapo's hammering escape noises
The loud hammering sounds of Mexican drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán’s great escape were audible as guards ignored the tunnel being drilled by his henchmen.
There has been speculation about the loud drilling and banging sounds that would have made before El Chapo escaped through a 1.5km tunnel on July 11.
Some of the prisoners in the Altiplano penitentiary are now saying they kept quiet about the strange sounds because they had been threatened by prison officials, Mexico News Daily reported.
The hammering can be heard in a new surveillance video which has been leaked by Mexican broadcaster Televisa.
In the original video released by federal authorities, an audio track blocked out the sound.
El Chapo left his cell with a prison guard shortly after 5:30pm on July 11 to meet with a lawyer, this is when the noise, made by a hammer and drill, intensified, Mexico News Daily reported.
The drug lord returned at 7:00pm and moved swiftly to the shower area of the cell.
For the next hour and 50 minutes, he can be seen laying on his bed watching a video on a computer tablet, cranking the volume.
About 10 hammer strikes into the concrete can be heard.
Several guards can be seen watching their screens but seemingly fail to notice what was going down in El chapo’s cell.
He can then be seen bending over the shower, where it looks as though he is removing a piece of concrete from the area.
Next minute the drug lord is gone.
The time log of the video suggests it took guards 37 minutes to show up at Guzmán's cell after he disappeared into the tunnel, NBC news claimed.
Mexico's two major opposition political parties have demanded government officials be held accountable for the lapses showed in the leaked video, NBC reported.
The leaked video will be investigated as a crime.
