[Whitfield:] All right. Hello again, everyone. And thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. So one of the world's most notorious drug kingpins is on the run after escaping from a Mexican prison. Joaquin Guzman, better known at "El Chapo" escaped from a maximum security federal prison this morning just west of Mexico City. Guards noticed he was missing after discovering a hole in his cell leading to a roughly mile-long tunnel with lighting and ventilation. Guzman is the head of the Sinaloa cartel, considered one of the most powerful and violent in Mexico. It's also known for being a major heroin supplier to the U.S. But he is also known as being a sort of Robin Hood, having that reputation in his hometown. CNN's Sara Ganim joins me now with more on who he is Sara.
[Sara Ganim, Cnn Correspondent:] Good afternoon. Good afternoon, Fred. Yes, he is no doubt a very notorious and dangerous criminal in Mexico, known his cartel well known in the United States for supplying much of the heroin and cocaine that makes it here. And guess what, a lot of the way that it's transported here is through tunnels. His cartel is known for tunneling drugs underneath the U.S.Mexican border into the United States. And now officials believe that that is the way that he escaped for the second time from a prison in Mexico.
[Ganim:] They call him El Chapo, or shorty for his small 5'6" frame, but his legend is enormous. And now the world's most powerful and deadly drug trafficking kingpin has broken out of prison in Mexico, again. Joaquin Guzman is the notorious drug boss who runs the Sinaloa cartel, widely believed to be the biggest supplier of heroin and cocaine in the United States. Authority say this time he escaped through a hole in the shower area of the Altiplano prison.
[Monte Alejandro Rubido, National Security Commission:] The tunnel is a vertical pass about 10 meters deep and had a ladder and stairs. This tunnel has PVC tubing, ventilation and lighting.
[Ganim:] His latest escape adding to El Chapo's legend, in Mexico he's a towering figure of intrigue, the subject of books, songs and folklore. And he's wanted on both sides of the border. In the U.S. on federal trafficking and organized crime charges. His cartel notorious for tunneling drug under the U.S.Mexican. Born into a poor family in the Sinaloa state when the drug trade was evolving, Guzman amassed a powerful empire, one that he continued running from behind bars after his first arrest in 1993. His reputation only grew as he spent 13 years on the run after escaping from prison in 2001. Sneaking out in a laundry cart, in a plot that allegedly cost him $2.5 million in bribes. He was caught and rearrested just last year at this resort in Now, Fred, one of the ways he was able to stay on the run for so many years the last time he broke out of jail was, again, through his network of tunnels and also just the enormous amount of staff, the people around him who protect him. Obviously the U.S. officials unofficially very upset about this. They had tried to extradite him back here for the few months that he was back in a Mexican jail in a Mexican prison, I'm sorry, saying, you know, essentially that they didn't believe that he couldn't break out there again. He just holds so much power in that state. Of course their fears came true again this morning, Fred.
[Whitfield:] All right. Sara Ganim, thanks so much in New York. Well, let's talk more about this. Joining me on the phone is award winning staff writer for "the New Yorker," Patrick Radden Keefe who has written extensively about "El Chapo. So Patrick, glad you're back with us. So, you know, he escaped from prison before, as we're being reminded by Sara there. So is it your feeling that he has gone somewhere to simply blend in, someplace off the beaten path? What is his I guess what is to be predicted about his escape?
[Patrick Radden Keefe, Staff Writer, The New Yorker:] Well, I think that the big question actually is going to hover over the next few hours and days, which is can they pick him up before he gets back to his home state of Sinaloa. If there's a big surge by the Mexican government in that area immediately around the prison and they can capture him before he flees the state, then you might actually see a situation in which he's recaptured. But I think that what history has shown us is that if he can get back to the mountains where he grew up and where he has a huge amount of local support, I think we'll never see this guy again.
[Whitfield:] My goodness. We understand that he may have still been doing business while behind bars. So that also speaks to his continued influence.
[Keefe:] Yes. You know, it's funny, I spoke to a Mexican official earlier today who was really incredulous. This is a person who had told me every time I raised the idea that "Chapo" might escape again, somebody told me it's never going to happen, it's never going to happen. And this morning he sent me an email with two words which were it happened. And when I talked to him later, he says that, you know, there had been some suggestion that Chapo Guzman has become kind of symbolic figure in the cartel. You know, some people would say, he was a nonexecutive chairman, that he wasn't actually making the day- to-day decisions. And what this guy suggested to me was that the fact that they went to the trouble that they did to get him out suggested that he was indispensable, that they need him running this operation.
[Whitfield:] And so if that is the case, and this operation clearly is very influential, while he was imprisoned, was there any way of indicating whether his business was hurt by his absence?
[Keefe:] I mean it would be hard to say. There have been a lot of questions in recent months about who was going to take over. He has sons who were allegedly part of the cartel. There were other people in the leadership with him. But these are people who are quite old. Guzman is I think about 60 now. Some of the people who had been major figures in the cartel are older than he is. And so there were questions about whether there would be a leadership vacuum. But at the same time the Mexican government had kind of moved on once "El Chapo" was captured and was beginning to focus on other cartels in different parts of the country that were more of a priority. And so I don't think there had been a there was never a huge diminution in drugs that were coming across the border. And that is one of the paradox that you can take out the head of the organization and the organization will actually continue to function.
[Whitfield:] And you know, the president, Enrique Pena Nieto, had apparently conveyed that this escape is a real blow to that government, that administration's efforts because apparently he had taken some credit for weakening some of the cartels. Is there a feeling that Nieto had indeed helped weaken this cartel especially with the arrest of "El Chapo," because even today in Paris the Mexican president has said that this escape is, quote, "an affront to the state."
[Keefe:] Yes. Look, it was a huge victory for Pena Nieto to capture "El Chapo." It was really the only thing you could compare to in terms of the magnitude of -. And here was President Obama and the killing of Osama bin Laden. This was somebody who really appeared untouchable. And to have him get away now in a situation in which everybody has been watching and kind of wondering. Actually many, many Mexican officials said to me and said publicly that this was going to be a real test of the Mexican judicial system, could they handle a guy of this magnitude. And people said again and again, yes, we can. This is going to be a proof of concept for us. To have him escape in such a bold manner in a tunnel that looks like it was an industrial project. This was not a tunnel this guy dug himself, there were lots and lots of people involved in this thing. It's a major embarrassment for Mexico. And I think it will be a real source of tension for U.S.Mexican relations.
[Whitfield:] All right, Patrick Radden Keefe, thanks so much. All right. Also, straight ahead, closing arguments set to begin this week in the Colorado movie theater shooting. Next, our legal experts take a look at what we can expect from James Holmes' defense team.