TOP MEXICO DRUG KINGPIN HAS ESCAPED

Prison's Director, 30 Officers Suspected Of Aiding 'el Chapo'

MEXICO CITY -- One of the most significant drug kingpins jailed in Mexico
escaped from a maximum-security prison in Jalisco state early yesterday
morning, Mexican law enforcement authorities said.

The escape of convicted cocaine trafficker Joaquin Guzman Loera, known as
"El Chapo," is a blow to the new government of President Vicente Fox, who
just one day earlier declared a new crusade against corruption and
organized crime in Mexico.

Mexico's Public Security Secretariat, or ministry, ordered the detention of
the Jalisco prison's director, Leonardo Beltran, and 30 officers for
possible involvement in the escape.

Fox's secretary for internal affairs, Santiago Creel, said "all the force
of the state" will be used to find Guzman and investigate those responsible
for the escape.

Guzman's flight "is incomprehensible given the precise instructions that
have been given to make sure prisoners of the state are guarded and
supervised," Creel said. He said the escape was a response to Fox's
determination to root out organized crime so that "it can never again have
control over anything."

Guzman, who was serving a 20-year sentence, was last accounted for Friday
night at the Puente Grande prison, a federal institution in Guadalajara,
Jalisco, authorities said. The prison is considered one of Mexico's most
secure. It reportedly houses only about 100 inmates.

Guzman, who smuggled cocaine from northwestern Mexico into the United
States, was discovered missing after a 9 a.m. check of inmates yesterday.
Officials launched a futile search and at midday they confirmed the escape.
More than 60 federal police from Mexico City were sent to Jalisco to begin
a manhunt along with Jalisco state police.

Guzman had been at the prison since November 1995. He had been captured by
Mexican authorities in June 1993 on Mexico's border with Guadalajara.

Guzman's escape came just days after two major events in Mexico that had
been applauded by U.S. officials who have been frustrated with the
country's problem with police collusion with traffickers.

On Friday, Fox's government sent an additional 1,500 heavily armed federal
police to the city of Tijuana in a show of force against another drug
cartel, the Arellano Felix organization, whose leaders are on the FBI's 10
Most Wanted list.

On Thursday night, Mexico's Supreme Court ruled an accused member of the
Tijuana cartel could legally be extradited to the United States even though
he is a Mexican citizen. The cartel member, Arturo Paez, captured by
Mexican authorities in November of 1997, faces a federal indictment in San
Diego for smuggling.

Paez could have other legal options he can pursue to try to block
extradition. Among them is a challenge to the concept of life sentences,
which Mexican law prohibits.

Guzman was a rival of the Tijuana-based Arellano Felix cartel.

Authorities here believe the Tijuana organization tried to kill Guzman in
the city of Guadalajara in 1993 when it sent gunmen to the international
airport there to gun him down.

In a case that shocked the country and spotlighted the violent nature of
Mexico's drug cartels, officials here concluded that the gunmen mistakenly
assassinated the Catholic cardinal of Guadalajara instead.