{"id":423280,"date":"2026-01-19T13:21:16","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T13:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/423280\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T13:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T13:21:16","slug":"today-in-history-january-19-notorious-drug-lord-flees-prison-in-laundry-cart","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/423280\/","title":{"rendered":"Today in History – January 19: Notorious drug lord flees prison in laundry cart"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hiding in a laundry cart, imprisoned drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman escaped from a maximum-security prison in Mexico<\/a> on January 19, 2001.<\/p>\n

He would remain free for more than a decade.<\/p>\n

Guzman, head of the powerful Sinaloa cartel, had been incarcerated in 1993 for murder and drug trafficking.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman after his recapture in 2014.<\/p>\n

He had a fairly cushy life behind bars, reportedly ordering his meals from a menu and conducting his business affairs via mobile phone.<\/p>\n

But, fearing extradition to the US to face charges there, he decided the sedentary lifestyle was not for him.<\/p>\n

On January 19, 2001, his cell was opened, and, reportedly concealed in a laundry cart, the kingpin was escorted out of prison by bribed guards.<\/p>\n

\"NotoriousGuzman was ultimately extradited to the US. (AP)<\/p>\n

The warden of the prison was only notified about half an hour before midnight of the same day, long after Guzman had abandoned his bribed escort after sending them into a servo to get a bottle of water.<\/p>\n

Guzman\ufeff remained on the run for more than a decade, travelling throughout Mexico with a cadre of heavily armed guards.<\/p>\n

He was known for making public appearances, including dining in well-packed restaurants, where his guards would confiscate the cell phones of all those present.<\/p>\n

\"\"\/Mexico’s cartel wars have unleashed violence across the country. (AP)<\/p>\n

Supposedly, Guzman – a man believed to be responsible for the deaths of thousands of people – picked up the tab for all the customers on such occasions.<\/p>\n

\ufeffRecaptured in 2014, he escaped prison again via a tunnel dug from his cell, before authorities nabbed him again in 2016.<\/p>\n

He was, as he originally feared, extradited to the US, where he was in 2019 found guilty of a number of criminal charges and sentenced to life in prison.<\/p>\n

Thus far, he has not managed another escape.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Hiding in a laundry cart, imprisoned drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman escaped from a maximum-security prison in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":423281,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":{"0":"post-423280","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-headlines","8":"tag-headlines","9":"tag-news","10":"tag-top-news","11":"tag-top-stories","12":"tag-topnews","13":"tag-topstories"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=423280"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/423280\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/423281"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=423280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=423280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=423280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}