Guards entered drug lord's cell 18 minutes after escape
Mexico City
It took 18 minutes for prison guards to go into Mexican drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's cell after they noticed that he vanished from his cell, the interior minister said Thursday.
Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said guards who monitored the surveillance cameras inside Guzman's cell "immediately" sounded the alarm when they noticed that "he was no longer there" late Saturday.
"The arrival of guards (in the cell) took place 18 minutes later," Osorio Chong said after meeting with Congress's security committee.
Prosecutors are investigating whether the prison's protocols were properly followed, he said.
It was the first time that officials said how long it took for guards to respond after Guzman disappeared into a hole on the floor of his shower.
Closed-circuit camera footage released by the government this week showed that Guzman paced in his cell before bending down behind a short partition wall in the shower.
The Sinaloa cartel chief then rode on a motorcycle with two carts rigged on a rail system inside a 1.5 kilometer (one-mile) tunnel built for his second escape in 14 years.
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