Manhunt of El Chapo Guzmán

Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, the former leader of the Sinaloa Cartel, dodged international manhunt for more than a decade after escaping from a maximum-security prison in the Mexican state of Jalisco in 2001. Throughout his criminal career following his escape, Guzmán was pursued all across Mexico and abroad, and went from being an average-level drug lord to arguably the world's most-wanted man. Mexico offered MXN$30 million (about US$2.3 million) for his capture, while the United States offered up to US$5 million for information leading to his arrest and conviction. In 1993, he was arrested and imprisoned for murder and drug trafficking, facing a 20-year sentence. Fearing his extradition to the U.S., Guzmán fled from prison by reportedly hiding in a laundry cart in 2001. He quickly reincorporated back in the Sinaloa Cartel while authorities continued their manhunt to re-arrest him.

While on the run, Guzmán reportedly travelled with a large entourage of armed bodyguards equivalent to those of a head of state, using a vast surveillance network and bullet-proof cars, aircraft, and all-terrain vehicles to avoid capture. His elusiveness helped him craft a near-mythical persona and image in some parts of Mexico; with alleged eyewitnesses accounts abound that Guzmán would enter restaurants with his gunmen, order all cell phones and devices confiscated, proceed to calmly enjoy his meal, and subsequently paying the tab for every customer in the restaurant upon departing. His whereabouts were a subject of Mexican folklore, with reports and rumors circulating that he was in many parts of Mexico, especially in an area known as the "Golden Triangle", a drug-producing region in the Sierra Madre mountains where Guzmán grew up.

By late 2013, authorities began to penetrate Guzmán's security inner circle by arresting several of his top lieutenants. Through informant tips, wiretap phone calls, and confessions from his close associates, Mexican security forces got closer to his whereabouts. After more than 13 years on the run, he was finally arrested by the Mexican Navy in a beach resort area in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, on 22 February 2014. Many Mexicans compared his capture with the fall of Colombia's drug lord Pablo Escobar, the capture of Saddam Hussein, and even the death of Osama bin Laden. However, on July 11, 2015, Guzmán escaped from prison again through a tunnel inside his prison cell, but was caught six months after his escape and was extradited to the U.S.