A Peep Inside the Fortified Squalid Tunnel El Chapo Hid for Hours Before He Was Captured (Photos)

 

The story of how the world's most notorious drug baron will be told for years to come especially for the manner in which he was captured. The story as told by Dailymail shows so much we didn't know about the notorious drug baron and how he tried to escape through a six-foot tall tunnel.

 

 

These pictures show the inside of the squalid tunnel the world's most wanted drug lord spent hours holed up inside as he mounted his futile escape plan.

 

Images of bullet-riddled walls, blood-splattered floors and a completely ransacked house paint a picture of the bloody battle which led to the capture of Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman following an early morning raid on Friday. 

 

On Monday, the interior of the house looked much the same with bullet holes pocking the white concrete walls. Clothing and food, including a wheel of cheese, were scattered throughout. Beds were tossed and blood was smeared on the walls. 

 

Five of the notorious Sinaloa cartel were slain by marines and six were arrested following a gun battle at 4am, but El Chapo made another of his infamous escapes, slipping out through a sewer system with his right-hand man El Cholo Ivan.

 

 

Guzman gave Mexican security forces the slip after opening a secret doorway hidden behind a mirror before descending into the sophisticated tunnel leading to the drains in Los Mochis. The six-foot tall tunnel complete with lighting, wood-paneled walls and a concrete floor leads to more stairs and then a metal hatch that opens into the city's storm sewer. 

 

 

Below, there were submarine-like reinforced metal doors to prevent the tunnel from flooding when water levels in the drains rose. Marines found another hole beneath a refrigerator which proved to be a red herring, the apparent beginnings of a project to build another escape route.  They also found two women cowering in one of the home's five bathrooms. Before his capture, Guzman had spent hours below ground as his henchmen sought to lure pursuing Marines toward the roof of the house - but was forced to emerge when rainwater started to fill the drains.

 

Guzman and his security chief traveled several blocks through the meter-tall storm sewer before popping out from a manhole in the middle of an intersection a mile across town. He and Ivan stole a car at gunpoint, drove a bit, then stole another. Federal police eventually found them on a highway outside of town and Guzman's flight ended six months after his stunning escape from the same maximum security prison where he now sits.

 

 

It took the Marines 90 minutes to find the tunnel entrance, giving Guzman a crucial headstart. The lever to open the reinforced door behind the mirror was concealed in the light of the dressing room. Beside a ground floor bedroom littered with clothing, they entered a walk-in closet and found the unusual panel behind a mirror.

 

'My holidays are over,' Guzman said when he was finally caught, Televisa reported.

 

Video footage broadcast by the Mexican TV channel on Monday showed Marines firing shots inside the house during the dawn raid and images of the ground-floor dressing room where the tunnel entrance was hidden. A marine involved in the assault who gave a tour of the house to a reporter from Televisa said there were more people inside than expected and they were more heavily armed, including with rocket-propelled grenades and .50 caliber sniper rifles. 

 

 

Items found by Marines at the Los Mochis property included DVDs of 'La Reina Del Sur,' a fictional series about a female drug boss starring Kate del Castillo.

 

Blood and bullet holes are seen spattered on the white walls of the house. In Chapo's downstairs bedroom, there were flatscreen TVs and a sofa littered with injectable testosterone, syringes, antibiotics and condoms. There was also a bottle of 'Miracle V Tonic', a dietary supplement which promises to enhance sexual performance.

 

The Marines burst through two doors to find 15 of Guzman's henchman armed with machine guns and rocket launchers. Five of the hitmen were killed in the shootout, one of them falling from the roof to a patio and another dying on the street, Televisa said.

 

Heavy gunfire exchanges follow shouts by the marines of 'Security upstairs' in an apparent reference to the men guarding the drugs trafficker.

One of the marines is injured during the gunfight and receives encouragement from a colleague who can be overheard telling him 'Stay calm kid' as he lies on the ground unable to move.

 

 

Another marine, his face covered and a camera on top of his helmet, responds by throwing several grenades into the room where El Chapo's lieutenants are hiding out before illuminating it with the light mounted on top of his weapon and firing off several rounds.

 

A superior appears to guide him into the room as he advances before pointing the way forward for reinforcements he has ordered to help out.

 

The bodies of at least two criminals can be seen lying in the dust-filled room - furnished with little more than a table and chair and a fridge with its door open and its contents spilled out on the floor - as the soldiers move forward between shouts of encouragement and warnings to be careful. The official in charge of the operation can be heard yelling: 'Back him up here' and 'One more on this side' over the exchange of gunfire and explosions.