MEXICO CITY – Mexican troops have found what may be a hideout of the country’s number one drug lord at a giant methamphetamine lab hidden in the northern Sierra among cabins equipped with caviar face cream and escort catalogues.
Mexican media published photos of a complex of 22 secluded mountain cabins, camouflaged to be invisible from the air.
One was outfitted with a king-sized bed, luxury clothes, satellite television, pirated movies and high-speed internet. The daily Reforma said army officials suspected the well-equipped cabin was used by top fugitive Joaquin “Shorty” Guzman, leader of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, or his associate Ismael Zambada, to oversee operations at the largest synthetic drug lab ever found in Mexico.
Guzman, who escaped from a high security jail in 2001 hidden in a laundry van, has defied all attempts to catch him since President Felipe Calderon launched an army-led war on drug gangs on taking power in December 2006.
Drug experts say Guzman changes his mobile phone every day to avoid being tracked electronically.
Calderon’s drug war has become the biggest challenge of his presidency, as the army assault has sparked new turf wars and killings involving rival cartels that have left more than 13,000 people dead, including many police, in under three years.
The secret complex is located in the same region of the northern state of Durango where Guzman, in his mid-50s, married an 18-year-old beauty pageant winner in a lavish secret ceremony in 2007. A local archbishop said in June that Guzman was known to be living in the area.
Guzman, nicknamed “Shorty” because of his 1.55m (5ft) tall stature, is blamed for setting off a wave of killings in the northern border cities of Ciudad Juarez and Tijuana in recent months after he tried to muscle in on the territory of local cartels. – (Reuters)