OFFICIALS TELL PRISON BREAK PLOT

MEXICO CITY (AP) - The tale of how one of Mexico's top suspected drug
bosses slipped out of a maximum-security prison has yet to be told in its
entirety, but already it has all the makings of a Hollywood blockbuster.

Officials, describing the intricate plot for the first time late Monday
night, said Joaquin Guzman spent months corrupting prison guards, then
persuaded them to help him sneak out a stash of gold - only to smuggle
himself out instead.

So far, authorities have implicated 78 people in the Jan. 19 escape, with
at least 59 of them in custody, including the director of the Puente Grande
prison in western Jalisco state. Prosecutors said others could still be
implicated. Guzman remains at large.

Investigators have been able to reconstruct the 43-year-old Guzman's escape
route, attorney general inspector Carlos Javier Vega said Monday evening.
He illustrated it with computer-animated videos that looked like a new
level of the game Doom.

``Everything points toward the escape being the product of a perfectly
planned operation,'' Vega said.

Such planning allegedly is nothing new for Guzman: He is wanted in the
United States on charges that he supervised the building of a tunnel 1,416
feet long and 65 feet deep beneath the border to smuggle drugs into the
United States.

At Puente Grande, Guzman was serving more than 20 years for criminal
association and bribery, and was linked to a 1993 shootout in which a Roman
Catholic cardinal was killed in the crossfire.

Guzman, along with two other alleged drug lords, ``practically became the
owners'' of the prison, Vega said. He said the men put guards on their
payroll, smuggling in alcohol, drugs, prostitutes - ``and even Viagra.''

Guzman, he said, would order his food from a menu, which the prison's head
cook would then prepare for him.

``A group known as 'the batters' has been identified, whose mission was to
beat with bats any security officers or guards who didn't obey the
decisions'' of the three men, he said.

The only thing Guzman couldn't buy, Vega said, was his freedom.

And so he began to plot. Investigators say he enlisted the help of a
maintenance worker, Francisco Javier Camberos, 35, who had complete access
to the entire prison. Guzman buttered up the guards by circulating rumors
that he was about to be freed and offering them high-paid jobs in a
security firm he said he would form.

On Jan. 13, Vega said, Guzman set his plot in motion. He summoned two
high-level guards and asked for help in smuggling out a couple pounds of
gold he said had been collected in the prison. Camberos, he said, would
carry out the gold, and they would get a cut.

Three days later, Guzman discussed with prison supervisors who would be on
duty Jan. 19, and made staffing changes he said were necessary to get the
gold out without being detected, Vega said.

But the plot was nearly foiled the afternoon of Jan. 19, Vega said. After
an inspection, federal officials ordered additional security measures,
including moving Guzman to a higher-security area. The prison director
ignored their orders, Vega said.

That night, Guzman slipped under a sheet into a cushioned laundry cart, and
Camberos wheeled it down the prison corridors. Several doors had been
propped open with garbage cans, and footage from the security cameras was
missing.

When they reached the parking lot, Vega said, Camberos told the guard:
``It's the master's gold,'' and slipped Guzman into his car. The guards let
Camberos drive out without checking his vehicle, Vega said, under orders
from the area commanders. The computer disk keeping record of vehicles
coming in and out was later found to have been erased.

When guards showed up late that night to move Guzman to another area of the
prison, he was missing. The prison director ordered a search, but the
prisoner was nowhere to be found.

A month later, Guzman remains missing. Judges have ordered 78 people held
while the investigation continues, although 19 of them have been released.
Vega conceded that ``some'' of those ordered held have yet to be detained.

``All lines of investigation will continue until their final
consequences,'' Vega said.

Mexico's new president, Vicente Fox (news - web sites), has pledged ``a war
without mercy'' on drug smugglers. He has said he will root out corruption
throughout the judicial and prison system, although he said it ``may be a
bitter fight because of the perverse influence of dirty money.''

Jorge Campos Murillo, a deputy attorney general, conceded that the escape
revealed fundamental problems with Mexico's prisons, saying, ``I think it's
necessary to reflect on the penitentiary system.''

With the low salaries they receive, Mexican prison workers are easily
susceptible to bribes, he said.

And he added that Mexico's prison system is ``one of the most
humanitarian'' in the world.