Updated 07:13 PM EST, Sun, Dec 22, 2024

Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán Latest News: Financier Who Assisted Drug Kingpin’s Prison Break Arrested

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The man who allegedly financed Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán's jailbreak has been arrested and is now detained in the same maximum security federal prison the drug kingpin escaped from in July.

Manuel Rodolfo Trillo Hernández, a businessman, was detained at the Altiplano Federal Prison on Monday, UPI reported from El Universal. Mexico's Attorney General's Office charges Trillo Hernández as the financier of Guzmán's prison break, as well as acquiring money and property by using fake identities and shell companies for the drug lord's Sinaloa Cartel.

Prosecutors insisted that Trillo Hernández "knowingly used" some of the Sinaloa Cartel's earnings between 2012 and 2015 to assist in Guzmán's escape, UPI further reported. This was called by prosecutors as a "crime against the public health," the news outlet added.

Last month, CNN reported from a Mexican official that Guzmán, the world's most wanted drug leader, was seen near the town of Cosalá, located in the mountains of Mexico's Sinaloa state on Oct. 9. The fugitive reportedly broke a leg and injured his face when he fell off a cliff while he was being pursued by authorities. He was able to escape when his bodyguards rushed to his aid and carried him away to the dense forest.

Earlier this month, reports surfaced claiming that Guzmán is hiding along Argentina's mountainous border with Chile. The tip came from a mystery call and has prompted Argentina's forces on high alert, The Guardian wrote.

Last week, President Cristina Fernández's government confirmed that it had received information that Guzmán had wanted to cross the Chile/Argentina frontier in the southern region of Patagonia, The Guardian added. However, Argentine officials found out upon further investigation that the tip was a hoax.

"We tracked down the call, found who made it," Sergio Berni, the security secretary, told the radio station La Red, as quoted by the news outlet. "After interrogating him, a judge found there was no truth to the caller's information."

BBC wrote that six key people involved with Guzmán's prison break were also arrested. Among those apprehended is his brother-in-law, a pilot who flew Guzmán to his home state of Sinaloa and Durango after the jailbreak, and a member of his legal team described as the mastermind. The mastermind reportedly visited Guzmán at the Altiplano prison to update him on the operation's progress.

Guzmán's brother-in-law supervised the creation of the elaborate underground tunnel used by the drug kingpin as well as organized transport, the news outlet added.

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