The internal DEA documents reveal that drug agents first got information on escape plans in March 2014, about a month after Guzman was captured in the seaside resort town of Mazatlan, Mexico.
Immediately after Guzman’s arrest, which was considered a crowning achievement of Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto’s government in its war against drug cartels, various Guzman family members and drug-world associates were considering “potential operations to free Guzman,” the documents show. The agency notified Mexican authorities about the plots.
In the documents, Guzman is identified by Guzman-Loera.
DEA agents did not have information about Saturday night’s plan, when Guzman escaped through an underground tunnel in his prison cell’s shower area, allegedly built without the detection of authorities. It allowed Guzman to do what Mexican officials promised would never happen after his re-capture last year — slip out of one of the country’s most secure penitentiaries for the second time.
In March 2014 agents in Los Angeles reported a possible escape operation funded by another drug organization run under the auspices of Guzman’s Sinaloa Cartel. That plot involved threatening or bribing prison officials. That July, the same investigation revealed that Guzman’s son had sent a team of lawyers and military counter-intelligence personnel to design a break-out plan.