Mexican drug lord Rafael Caro Quintero is shown behind bars in this undated file photo. Quintero won an initial appeal against his conviction and 40 year sentence for the 1985 murder of U.S. Infamous drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, who daringly escaped prison on July 11, utilized a tunnel leading from the only “supermax” maximum-security prison in Mexico, where he'd been.

Altiplano

Prison

Mr. Guzmán escaped through a tunnel more than 30 feet underground that led to a nearby construction site.

Construction

site

Altiplano

Prison

Mr. Guzmán escaped through a tunnel more than 30 feet underground that led to a nearby construction site.

Construction

site

0.7 MILES

Survey planet file upload. Mr. Guzmán escaped through a tunnel more than 30 feet underground that led to a nearby construction site.

DigitalGlobe via Google Earth

First, Mr. Guzmán is believed to have climbed down through a two-by-two foot hole underneath the shower in his cell in the prison’s most secure wing.

Mexico National Security Commission via Associated Press

The shower opening led to an elaborate tunnel almost a mile long. The tunnel was equipped with lighting, ventilation and a motorcycle on rails that was probably used to transport digging material and cart the dirt out.

Eduardo Verdugo/Associated Press

It led to a construction site with a bare-bones compound in the nearby neighborhood of Santa Juanita.

Yuri Cortez/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images

Through a hole in the ground, a ladder led to the middle of the construction site.

Attorney General of Mexico

Construction on the compound was started some time after February last year, satellite images show. Mexican authorities began a sweeping manhunt, shutting down an airport and holding 30 prison employees, including the head of the prison, for questioning.

February 2015

Prison about

one mile away

Digital Globe via Google Earth