Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Prison officials in Costa Rica are on high alert as intelligence reports suggest that associates of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzmán, leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel, could be plotting a daring escape. Such was the report published this morning by daily tabloid Diario Extra, which includes statements by Reinaldo Villalobos, Director of Social Integration, and one of the top corrections officials in Costa Rica.

The Diario Extra report explains that Sinaloa Cartel members serving prison sentences in Costa Rica might be emboldened by his boss’ recent escape, and they could try to join him in a new drug trafficking organization that could emerge from a joint venture between former rival cartels.

As recently reported by The Costa Rica Star:

Drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” (Shorty) Guzman escaped from the Altiplano I federal prison in central Mexico through a 1.5-kilometer (nearly one-mile) tunnel that led to a house […] The tunnel was equipped with a ladder, a ventilation system made with PVC pipes, lights and a motorcycle mounted on rails that was apparently used to haul out the dirt […]

 

The Sinaloa cartel boss was last spotted by guards monitoring security cameras at 8:52 p.m., when he approached the showers in his cell block.

 

Guzman’s escape is an “affront to the Mexican state,” President Enrique Peña Nieto said […]

Director Villalobos explained his position to Diario Extra as follows:

We have been closely monitoring the actions of these [Mexican] inmates. What I can tell you is that whenever we get this type of information we do everything we can to thwart these potential [prison break] situations, which we definitely do not want.

In 2008, agents from the Office of Judicial Investigations (Spanish initials: OIJ) worked together with Social Integration to stop a vehicle loaded with weapons, which was headed towards La Reforma, Costa Rica’s largest prison, during visitation hours. On that day, the wife of a Sinaloa Cartel member was also going to La Reforma, and she was found in possession of fake passports for her husband.

In 2007, law enforcement agents in Nicaragua stormed a small aircraft that landed in the Managua airport on the same day a group of Sinaloa Cartel members were headed to trial. That aircraft was falsely registered, and it carried nearly a million dollars in cash. Furthermore, a prison informant led police to discover a weapons cache of 12 AK-47 and 2 M-16 assault rifles along with plenty of ammunition.

Social Integration in Costa Rica is paying close attention to all reports from informants, particularly in light of reports indicating that officials from the United States knew about El Chapo’s intention to escape. As recently reported by The Costa Rica Star:

U.S. television network CBS reported Monday that the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration told the Mexican government about the drug lord’s plan to escape from prison.

DEA “agents had developed bits of information about the various plans, and passed that information along to Mexican authorities,” CBS said, citing a U.S. law enforcement source.