How does the top criminal in a country escape from jail?  The answer to the question is a tunnel, according to news reports.  The larger answer is corruption, or exactly the kind of corruption that makes it tough for Mexico to fight the cartels.   

The story goes like this:

Top Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman has escaped from a maximum security prison for the second time, officials announced late Saturday. 

Guzman, who headed the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, was last seen in the showers of the Altiplano prison, about 56 miles outside the Mexico City, according to a statement from the National Security Commission. He went to the shower area but after some time was lost by security camera surveillance. When authorities went to check his cell, it was empty.

A manhunt began immediately in the surrounding area and highways. Flights have also been suspended at Toluca airport near the penitentiary.

Guzman was captured in February 2014 after more than a decade on the lam. He was listed as 56 years old at the time, though there are varying dates for his birth. He faces multiple federal drug trafficking indictments in the U.S. and was on the DEA’s most-wanted list.

During his time as a fugitive, Guzman transformed himself from a middling Mexican capo into arguably the most powerful drug trafficker on the world. His fortune grew to be estimated at more than $1 billion, according to Forbes magazine, which listed him among the "World's Most Powerful People" and ranked him above the presidents of France and Venezuela.

We remind you that Mexico's attorney general did not want to send El Chapo to a U.S. prison.  He said that it was a matter of national sovereignty to hold this criminal down there.

Wonder what he will say now?

President Peña-Nieto will catch fire for this.  At the same time, the problem is a lot bigger than just one man or administration. 

The culprit is a corrupt social justice system, from jails to judges to police.  There is just too much money to go around!

As a Mexican friend told me, we don't know whom to trust.  We don't know who's signed, sealed, and delivered.

Up here, this is exactly the kind of story that Donald Trump will jump on to make the case that we need to secure the border.  

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