Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman Updates: More Arrested for Drug Kingpin's Prison Break

Mexican officials have arrested 13 more people believed to be involved in the prison break of drug kingpin and Sinaloa cartel leader Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman.

An official in the attorney general's office told AFP on Saturday that Celina Oseguera, the former national coordinator of the federal prison system, is one of those apprehended. Others arrested are the former director of El Altiplano maximum security prison, Valentin Cardenas Lema, and the facility's legal director, Leonor Garcia, Yahoo! News reported.

The remaining 10 suspects were guards and personnel at El Altiplano. The prison will hold them alongside Cardenas Lema, while Oseguera and Garcia are at the female prison in Tepic located in the western state of Nayarit, Yahoo! News noted.

A total of 20 officials have now been arrested in the belief that they are privy to Guzman's escape on July 11, the news outlet added. Oseguera and Cardenas were terminated from their positions at El Altiplano days after the fugitive's prison break, which was done through a hole in his shower cell that leads to an elaborate underground tunnel.

Mexican officials believe that Guzman had help and support from prison officers, as well as inside information that made his jailbreak easier, Yahoo! News reported. He is said to have spent £32 million in bribes to get away from the prison without fuss

Guzman, who's considered as Mexico's most powerful drug lord, was just in prison for 17 months. A $3.8 million reward is being offered for his arrest, the news outlet noted.

According to The Mirror, Guzman's most recent prison break was a huge embarrassment for Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto and his administration as this was the second jailbreak of the drug lord. He escaped from Puente Grande in 2001 and was apprehended 13 years later in Mazatlan, a tourist resort on the Pacific coast. After he was captured in February 2014, Peña Nieto insisted that Guzman could not escape again.

Guzman's lawyer, Juan Pablo Badillo Soto, said he broken away from Altiplano "after being tipped off he was under threat of extradition to America," The Mirror wrote. The attorney said that being taken to the U.S. to face more charges was always Guzman's "main concern," the news outlet added.

"Once it became clear the extradition process was underway, it was logical he decided to go," he said, as quoted by The Mirror.

Three weeks after Guzman fled Altiplano, Mexico's attorney general's office confirmed a judge's approval of extradition, The Mirror further reported. A formal request was made for Guzman on June 25 by U.S. authorities, who spent an estimated £1.9 billion for his capture.