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June 22, 2025 2 mins
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Today, we're looking back in time at al Chapo's great escape.
How did he do it? How did you pull off
one of the most audacious prison escapes in modern history.
He was incarcerated at Mexico's maximum security Alto Plano Prison.
El Chapo vanished from his cell right into the noses
of the guards. But did he He also dug a
mile long underground tunnel, or somebody did for him. This

(00:23):
wasn't a crude burrow either. The tunnel, which began a
construction site outside the prison, was over five feet high,
ventilated and lit, and even equipped with a customized motorcycle
rig to a rail system. Savellan's footage captured El Chapo
pacing inside his cell, disappearing behind a shower wall, and
never returning. By the time authorities discovered the tunnel's existence,

(00:45):
he was long gone. What made the escape so shocking
it wasn't just its logistical complexity, It was what it
revealed about al Chapo's power. The operation took months of
careful planning, likely involving dozens of engineers, cartel operatives, and
corrupt officials. Remember, it wasn't his first escape. Years before
he fled another maximum security prison by hiding in a

(01:07):
laundry cart, reportedly with help from paid off guards. Al
Chapel's ability to repeatedly evade law enforcement turned them into
a criminal legend, but the twenty fifteen escapes sent a
clear message even the most fortified prison wasn't safe from
his influence, or at least the most fortified prison in Mexico.
The global embarrassment forced a massive manhunt involving Interpol in

(01:30):
US agencies. He was eventually recaptured in a twenty sixteen
shootout in Los Mochi, Sinaloa. This event became a symbol
of Mexico's ongoing struggle with corruption and cartel violence, and
an exposed the vulnerability of state institutions and underscored the
vast resources cartels can command. It was more than a
jail break. Al Chapol's tunnel escape was a subterranean reminder

(01:52):
of how deep organized crime Royal runs actually seems to
remind me of a lot of these superhero TV shows,
movie use comics whatnot. Like The Kingpin, for instance, that
character kind of fascinated
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