DRUG kingpin Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman has escaped from a maximum security prison for the second time.
The head of the notorious Sinaloa Cartel was last seen in the showers at the Altiplano jail just outside the capital Mexico City.
The drug lord – also known as Shorty – went to the washroom at around 9pm last night and disappeared.
Prison officers checked his cell but it was empty.
A major manhunt has been launched into the surrounding area and motorways.
Flights have also been suspended at the nearby Toluca airport.
Guzman – believed to be worth around £630million – was captured in February 2014 after more than a decade on the run.
He faces multiple drug trafficking charges in the US and was on the Drug Enforcement Administration’s most-wanted list.
Guzman had been caught previously in Guatemala in 1993. He was extradited and sentenced to 20 years in a Mexican prison for murder and drug trafficking.
He escaped from the maximum security Puente Grande prison in western Jalisco state in 2001.
The killer, who is thought to be aged 57, hid in a laundry basket after bribing corrupt prison guards.
A reward of £3.2million was offered by the US state department for information leading to his arrest before his capture in 2014.
A submarine belonging to El Chapo was seized with seven-and-a-half tons of cocaine inside following his arrest.
The Sinaloa Cartel empire stretches throughout North America and reaches as far away as Europe and Australia.
It has been heavily involved in the bloody drug war that has torn through Mexico for the last several years.
Sinaloa is believed now to control most of the major crossing points for drugs at the US border with Mexico
Its thugs peddle drugs including cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamine around the world.
Shortyshank Redemption
POLICE check a pipe as they scour a jail after a powerful drug lord known as Shorty escaped down a mile-long tunnel — in scenes reminiscent of film The Shawshank Redemption.
The lit and ventilated tunnel had been dug to a washroom at Mexico’s Altiplano jail and included an adapted motorbike-on-rails to whisk Joaquin Guzman to freedom. Cops were last night quizzing 18 Altiplano jail staff.