NOTORIOUS DRUG TRAFFICKER ESCAPES FROM MEXICAN JAIL

Manhunt: Massive Search Follows Mysterious Disappearance. Prison Officials
Are Arrested.

MEXICO CITY--A notorious drug trafficker who may have been the
intended target of the gunmen who killed Cardinal Juan Jesus Posadas
Ocampo in 1993 escaped from a high-security prison in the state of
Jalisco late Friday, federal officials said.

The prison's director and 33 prison officers were swiftly arrested on
suspicion of aiding the escape.

The mysterious disappearance of Joaquin Guzman Loera, known as
"Chapo," triggered a massive search in the Guadalajara area, where the
prison is located. Guzman, whose name is often mentioned along with
the likes of the Arellano Felix brothers and other drug kingpins here,
was serving time for various federal crimes, including bribery, and
also faced homicide charges, Mexico's Public Security Ministry said.

According to official reports, guards verified that Guzman was in his
cell at 9:25 p.m. Friday and that by 11:35 p.m. he appeared to have
vanished.

Mexican radio, meanwhile, reported that some neighbors of the prison
said their power went out about 4 a.m. Saturday and a small white
plane was sighted flying overhead.

Authorities conducted a search of the prison grounds but found
nothing. Calling the escape "lamentable," security ministry spokesman
Jorge Tello Peon said at a news conference that "it is evident that to
have done this, Mr. Guzman had to have counted on the support of
personnel we now have in custody."

Those arrested included prison director Leonardo Beltran
Santana.

Tello also noted that the National Human Rights Commission had raised
concerns about lax discipline and preferential treatment at the prison
shortly before the escape.

Mexico's interior minister, Santiago Creel, later confirmed that
officials believed Guzman's accomplices were among those prison
officials under arrest, and he promised that he would do all he could
to get to the bottom of the case.

Creel characterized an effort by the new federal government to
confront drug cartels as a battle being waged "on all fronts."

"I'm convinced we are going to win," he added.

Guzman's escape came after a wild week of news events in Mexico that
included the kidnapping and mugging of a high-level Mexico City
official in a taxi, the killing of a child in a bomb attack in a
neighborhood of the capital and an attempt on the life of Chihuahua
Gov. Patricio Martinez, allegedly by a mentally ill former
policewoman.

In one of Mexico's most controversial unsolved mysteries, Guzman, by
some accounts, was the intended target when Cardinal Posadas Ocampo,
wearing vestments, was gunned down at the Guadalajara airport in May
1993. Rival drug cartel members were said by some to have been trying
to kill Guzman and to have hit the cardinal by mistake. Others suspect
that Guzman was actually part of a conspiracy to kill the prelate.

Guzman had been in the Puente Grande prison in Jalisco since 1995.
After his disappearance was discovered, a large contingent of federal
judicial police was sent from Mexico City to aid in the investigation,
said Roberto Santiago, a spokesman for the federal police.