Washington, Aug 5 (EFE).– The U.S. government is confident that fugitive Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman remains holed up in the western state of Sinaloa since escaping from prison last month, the head of the Drug Enforcement Administration told EFE Wednesday.

 

Sinaloa, Guzman’s long-time base of operations, “is where he could feel the most secure,” DEA Administrator Chuck Rosenberg said.

 

“On the basis of past information, El Chapo could be in Mexico, he could have returned to Sinaloa because he has his family and his contacts there,” Rosenberg said.

 

On July 11, the Sinaloa drug cartel boss escaped from the Altiplano I federal prison in central Mexico through a 1.5-kilometer (nearly one-mile) tunnel that led to a house.

 

Mexican and U.S. authorities “on a daily basis” exchange information gathered by their intelligence services on the possible whereabouts of El Chapo, a DEA spokesperson said.

 

Guzman, who was born in 1957, got his start in the drug business as a lieutenant of Miguel Angel Felix-Gallardo, the top leader of the Guadalajara cartel, in the 1980s.

 

He was a pioneer in transporting cocaine and marijuana from Colombia to the United States in large aircraft, which later returned loaded with millions of dollars in small bills.

 

Felix-Gallardo’s arrest and prosecution in 1989 led to the Guadalajara cartel being divided up and Guzman relocating to Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, and founding the Sinaloa cartel.

 

Guzman was eventually captured in 1993 in Guatemala and sent back to Mexico, where he was convicted on bribery charges.

 

On Jan. 19, 2001, with just seven months remaining on his sentence, Guzman escaped from the Puente Grande penitentiary in the western state of Jalisco, pulling off the Hollywood-style jailbreak by hiding in a cart full of dirty laundry in front of guards.

 

Chapo (Shorty) was apprehended again in February 2014 in the Sinaloa resort town of Mazatlan, an arrest considered to be the biggest blow to drug trafficking in Mexico in a decade.

 

Five days after his second escape, the U.S. government offered a $5 million reward for any information leading to Guzman’s capture.

 

Mexican authorities, meanwhile, are offering 60 million pesos ($3.8 million) for assistance in apprehending him. EFE