This underground construction blitz, and possibly Guzman's escape tunnel, was overseen by a single individual: Sinaloa financial officer Jose Sanchez-Villalobos.
Sanchez-Villalobos was arrested in early 2012 in Mexico in connection with a $15 million cash seizure that US officials believed to be drug profits. Although Mexico decided not to charge Sanchez-Villalobos, he is still being held as the US tries to convince Mexico to extradite him, according to the Wall Street Journal.
The US believes that Sanchez-Villalobos was, as the time of his arrest, the single highest-ranking member of the Sinaloa in charge of cross-border tunnel construction. US authorities have linked him to two of the largest super-tunnels ever constructed between Tijuana and San Diego, the AP notes.
The first tunnel was 700 yards long and had rail tracks linking a kitchen in Tijuana to two warehouses on the other side of the border. The second tunnel was 600 yards long and had ventilation, lighting, and an electric rail car system much like the tunnel that Guzman used for his escape.
Sanchez-Villalobos successfully kept up an incredibly low profile, and the cartel used a high level of operational security to insulate their chief tunnel-builder from law enforcement scrutiny.
Until Sanchez-Villalobos's arrest, US authorities were not entirely sure that the Sinaloa's tunneling operation even had a single overseer, according to Monte Reel of The New Yorker. The cartel effectively kept Sanchez-Villalobos's existence hidden for years.
Cartel operatives used a variety of code names to refer to him, with Sanchez-Villalobos going by a different nickname with each construction crew he coordinated. Cartel operatives working on different tunneling projects had no idea of Sanchez-Villalobo's actual identity, or of the organizational structure of Sinaloa's tunneling division. Sinaloa's tunneling operation was highly compartmentalized, with no contact between tunnel building teams, or between the teams and the Sinaloa hierarchy — other than the secretive Sanchez-Villalobos.
According The New Yorker, Sanchez-Villalobos and Guzman were held in the same wing of Altiplano prison, the maximum-security facility from which "El Chapo" escaped.
While incarcerated, Guzman continued to have access to a cell phone in open violation of prison policy. If Guzman had a phone, it is possible that Sanchez-Villalobos did too. The similarity in tunnel design may reflect Sanchez-Villalobos' active role in Guzman's prison escape.
The similarity in design could also be a function of Sinaloa's experience in tunnel construction. According to the Wall Street Journal, 159 tunnels were discovered under the US-Mexican border between 1990 and 2013. The vast majority of these structures linked either San Diego or Arizona to northern Mexico.
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteHello everyone, my name is ALFREED SIANG i am here to say a big thank you to my doctor DR OLU who helped me enlarge my penis.i have never had a happy relationship in my life because of my inability to perform well due to my small penis, due to frustration,i went online in search of solution to ending my predicament and than i came across testimony on how DR OLU has helped them, so i contacted him and he promised to help me with penis enlargement,i doubted at first but i gave him a trial and he sent me the product which i used according to his prescription and in less than a week,i saw changes in my penis and it grow to the size i wanted and since then,i am now a happy man and no lady complains again about my penis.if you also need the services of my doctor,you can also contact him on his email..drolusolutionhome@gmail.com or his whataspp is +2348140654426
ReplyDeleteHello everyone, my name is ALFREED SIANG i am here to say a big thank you to my doctor DR OLU who helped me enlarge my penis.i have never had a happy relationship in my life because of my inability to perform well due to my small penis, due to frustration,i went online in search of solution to ending my predicament and than i came across testimony on how DR OLU has helped them, so i contacted him and he promised to help me with penis enlargement,i doubted at first but i gave him a trial and he sent me the product which i used according to his prescription and in less than a week,i saw changes in my penis and it grow to the size i wanted and since then,i am now a happy man and no lady complains again about my penis.if you also need the services of my doctor,you can also contact him on his email..drolusolutionhome@gmail.com or his whataspp is +2348140654426