Days after his prison break, two photos have been sent to a local daily showing notorious crime lord Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman flying a helicopter and sipping beer.
The photos, which now have gone viral, were reportedly sent to ElBlogDelNarco.com by one of 'El Chapo' Guzman's sons.
The images are claimed to be first of the photos of 'El Chapo' Guzman, after his daring escape from the Altiplano prison.
Guzman escaped on 11 July through a 1.5 km long tunnel built underneath the maximum security prison.
Authorities are sceptical of the authenticity of the photos. "I don't think (his son) would leak those photos because that could be used to try and apprehend Chapo, and that would be circumventing his planned escape," Mike Vigil, former chief of international operations for the DEA, told Express-News.
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While some argue that the Guzman family would not put 'El Chapo' Guzman's freedom in jeopardy by providing information about him, Guzman's son Iván Guzmán had hinted days before his father's escape that 'El Chapo' would be free soon.
Todo llega para quien sabe esperar.
— Iván Guzmán. (@lvanArchivaIdo) July 7, 2015
To fix responsibility for Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's escape, the Mexican government sacked top prison officials and took into custody 50 prison officials for questioning. There is a suspicion that guards at the Altiplano prison helped the drug lord in planning his escape.
The tunnel built beneath the prison was almost 1.5km long and even had a motorcycle-fitted on a rail line. Investigators also found a telephone line under the tunnel.
Mexican authorities have now put a bounty of 60 million pesos ($3.82 million) for information leading to the capture of the high-profile fugitive.
This is the second time Guzman has managed to escape from a Mexican prison. In January 2001, he managed to escape from a federal maximum security prison; authorities took over a decade to nab him.
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