Photos: Inside a Mexican Drug Lord's Secret Escape Tunnels

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Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman spent years on the run at the helm of Mexico's most notorious drug cartel after escaping from a high security federal prison in a laundry truck on on Jan. 19, 2001.

Image: ADRIANA GOMEZ/Associated Press

By Brian Ries2014-02-27 22:56:47 UTC

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán lived the past 13 years of his life a wanted man.

Since his 2001 escape from prison in the back of a laundry truck, Guzmán, who oversaw the notorious Sinaloa Cartel, knew his capture was always imminent. So when authorities descended on a safe house rumored to be holding the drug lord last week, Guzmán was able to escape through an elaborate interconnected network of tunnels.

See also: Mexico's Most Notorious Drug Lord Captured in Mazatlan

Days later, thanks to a wiretap being monitored by DEA agents tracking him just across the border in Arizona, Mexican agents captured him. Guzmán is now being held in the country’s highest security prison, and despite the wishes of the United States, has no plans for extradition to face trial in the U.S. anytime soon, according to The Guardian .

Below, peer into the tunnels and safe houses that kept the country's most infamous drug lord away from the prying hands of U.S. and Mexican authorities.

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Topics: drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, mexico, US & World, World