IE 11 is not supported. For an optimal experience visit our site on another browser.

Prison Video Shows 'El Chapo' Guzmán Had Half-Hour Head Start Despite Loud Racket

Guards ignored drilling sounds and repeated hammering for half an hour before responding to the druglord's escape, security video shows.
Get more newsLiveon

Guards may have ignored — or at least didn't respond to — loud drilling sounds and repeated hammering for half an hour before responding to Mexican druglord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzmán's prison escape, according to prison security video published Thursday.

The video has previously been made public, but it had no soundtrack. The Mexican network Televisa published the unedited video with sound on Thursday, sparking demands for government officials to explain how Guzmán was able to calmly walk out of the maximum-security Altiplano prison through his elaborate underground tunnel in July.

Related: Trick Or Treat, El Chapo's Here: Drug Kingpin's Costume Can Be Yours

Image: Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzmán
Joaquin 'El Chapo' GuzmánMexico's AG's Office / Attorney General of Mexico via AP

At least 10 hammer strikes into concrete can be heard on the video, which recorded Guzmán in his cell. Heavy drilling can also be heard.

But according to the time log on the video itself, 28 minutes elapses before the first guard appears to notice that something's wrong. And it's 37 minutes before guards show up in Guzmán's cell — giving the murderous drug kingpin a comfortable head start on his pursuers.

Critical questions have been raised about how closely Guzmán was guarded and whether he had inside help. The Mexican national newspaper El Universal reported last week that two prison guards were playing solitaire as Guzmán escaped.

Related: 'El Chapo' Guzmán May Have Hidden in Mexican Mountains

Mexico's two major opposition political parties demanded Thursday that Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio and national Prosecutor General Arely Gomez be held accountable for the lapses depicted in the video.

National Security Commissioner Renato Sales Heredia, meanwhile, said the leaking of the video would be investigated as a crime, saying it compromised the confidentiality of the investigation.