The fallout from the Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman Mexican prison escape in July continues with the arrests of 13 more people, including the country's former national prison chief.
Celina Oseguera Parra, Mexico's ex-national prison chief, and Valentin Cardenas Lerma, the former director of the Altiplano prison from which Guzman escaped, were among the 13 arrested, local media has reported, reported the
Los Angeles Times.
Authorities said Lerman and 10 other suspects were being held by Mexican law enforcement at a prison on the outskirts of Mexico City. Oseguera Parra and another female suspect were being detained at a women's prison.
Guzman escaped July 11 from his prison cell via a tunnel that was dug under the prison grounds and it proved to be a major embarrassment for Mexican authorities.
Journalist Anabel Hernandez wrote for the Mexican news weekly Proceso that the government knew back in March that people connected with Guzman were looking for blueprints of the prison.
Hernandez in August accused the Mexican officials of omitting important information to the public after the escape.
"Instead of doing something about it and prevent the escape, the government just let him go," Hernandez told
CNN, citing document she received on the ongoing investigation in August. She refuted the government's statement that guards were not tipped off to the escape immediately after it happened.
Hernandez reported that documents showed that Guzman fellow prisoners complained about excessive noise at the facility that sounded like construction work.
Guzman, 60, built an estimated $1 billion fortune as the leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel that supplied much of the marijuana, cocaine and heroin sold on U.S. streets, reported CNN and the
Houston Chronicle.