Mexico authorities were desperately searching Monday for the country's most powerful drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, after he escaped from a maximum security prison by squeezing through an opening in the shower and fleeing down a mile-long elaborately constructed underground tunnel.
The tunnel was apparently built without the knowledge of guards, Fox News reported.
This is the second time Guzman has escaped prison.
"This represents without a doubt an affront to the Mexican state," said President Enrique Pena Nieto, Fox News reported. "But I also have confidence in the institutions of the Mexican state ... that they have the strength and determination to recapture this criminal."
The U.S. border is being watched closely, authorities said. It's believed Guzman will resume control of the Sinaloa Cartel in the coming hours, said Michael Vigil, a former U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration chief of international operations.
"We may never find him again," Vigil said. "All the accolades that Mexico has received in their counterdrug efforts will be erased by this one event."
Guzman's been called the Osama bin Laden of Mexico and is responsible for the killing of 34,000 people, Fox News reported. He controls marijuana and heroin trade in America and Europe.
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