MEXICO CITY (Sputnik) – Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who has escaped from a maximum security prison, is now wanted by the International Police Organization (Interpol).
The charges against 58-year-old El Chapo ("Shorty") listed on the Interpol website include "conspiracy to import and possess cocaine with intent to distribute; money laundering, criminal forfeiture (4 counts)."
Interpol has issued a red notice for El Chapo, who escaped from a maximum security prison in Mexico on Sunday, through a 1.5-kilometer (0.6-mile) tunnel from his prison cell shower.
Dozens of prison employees have been detained in connection with the escape. The chief of the Intelligence Division of Mexico’s Federal Police Ramon Eduardo Pequeno has been fired.
Pequeno was reportedly responsible for the video surveillance of maximum security prisons in Mexico, including the Altiplano federal prison where El Chapo was being held.
Guzman, who is the chief of the Sinaloa drug cartel, was imprisoned in February 2014. Earlier, in 2001, he escaped from another Mexican maximum security prison in a laundry cart, after spending eight years in custody.
The Sinaloa cartel is responsible for a major portion of marijuana, cocaine and heroin sold in the United States. The drug empire has allowed Guzman to accumulate a major fortune, which was estimated to be some $1 billion in 2009.
