Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman Update: Drug Lord's Lawyer Key Player in His Escape

Notorious drug lord, Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, is still at large. El Chapo managed to successfully grow the world's largest drug trafficking organization -- the Sinaloa Cartel, creating unrivalled wealth for himself.

In a report with Inqusitr, El Chapo had escaped the impenetrable Altiplano Prison by using a 1.5 kilometer tunnel. El Chapo's escape had shocked the United States as it had almost obtained an extradition order. The drug lord's escape also ingnites some suspicion within the Mexican government.

There are currently more than 34 people who have been charged in facilitating the drug lord's escape. Among those suspected of planning El Chapo's elaborate escape, include the head of the prison, one of his attorneys, as well as a few top level prison officials.

Insight Crime reports that federal police obtained documented conversations that proved that El Chapo was using his lawyers, officials from Mexico's Interior Ministry (SEGOB), as well as fellow inmates to to gain access on maps of the prison's layout. A further analysis of the reports was brought to Intelligence Commissioner, Ramon Eduardo Pequeño Garcia, and the head of SEGOB, Interior Minister, Miguel Angel Osorio Chong. The report added that there is no current evidence that these were further investigated.

The report had identified Guzman's lawyer, Granados Flores, as the person who was assigned with getting the prison plans because of his firsthand skill of official hierarchies in prisons as well as other government institutions.

Mexico's drug cartels have long been linked with many incidents of gang violence. Many activist groups have complained of very little political action coming from the Mexican government, many of which are already suspected to be part of the drug trafficking organization's seedy operations. 

El Chapo was scheduled to be extradited to the United States. El Chapo would be extradited to the United States if he was ever caught again, the Mexican court says.  

One of Guzman's guards had already suspected El Chapo's plans to escape and reported the possibility of the incident in December 2014. According to local news source, Mexico News Daily, fake construction projects were reportedly authorized just a few months before El Chapo's escape to mask the noise going on inside the drug lord's escape tunnel.

While incompetence cannot be ruled out in Mexico's often inefficient institutions, the lack of follow up on reports from the Mexican government raise high suspicions that the corruption of a high caliber played a huge part in El Chapo's escape.