Top prison officials sacked over Mexico drug lord escape

This photo provided by Mexico’s attorney general, shows the most recent image of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman before he escaped from the Altiplano maximum security prison in Almoloya, west of Mexico City, Sunday, July 12, 2015. The Mexican government is offering a 60 million pesos (about $4 million dollars) reward for information leading to his capture, after Guzman, escaped from the maximum security prison through a mile long tunnel that opened into the shower area of his cell. (Mexico’s Attorney General’s Office via AP)

MEXICO CITY — Three top Mexican prison officials were fired Monday over the escape of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, amid suspicions guards helped him flee.

Interior Minister Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said Guzman “must have counted on the complicity of prison personnel… which if confirmed would constitute an act of treason.”

Guzman disappeared from his cell late Saturday, even though he was wearing a monitoring bracelet and surveillance cameras were trained on the room for 24 hours per day, Osorio Chong said.

“Independently from the results of the investigation and to facilitate its correct development, I have fired” the Altiplano high-security prison’s director as well as the head of the country’s penitentiary system and its general coordinator, the minister said.

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