Notorious Mexican drug lord Chapo Guzman escapes prison - again

One of Mexico's most notorious drug lords, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, the kingpin of the Sinaloa Cartel, has escaped from a maximum-security prison through in a tunnel built right under his cell.

Embarrassed Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto has vowed to recapture Guzman, and ordered a full investigation into whether the escape happened with the help of public officials

Wanted by the US and once featured in the Forbes list of billionaires, Guzman was gone by the time guards entered his cell in Altiplano prison in central Mexico, government officials admitted.

Inside the passage used for Guzman's latest escape, guards found a motorbike mounted on rails probably used to cart off soil, as well as equipment to aerate the tunnel.

"This is going to be a massive black eye for Pena Nieto's administration," said Mike Vigil, former head of global operations for the US Drug Enforcement Administration.

"I don't think they took into account the cunning of Chapo Guzman and the unlimited resources he has. If Chapo Guzman is able to make it back to the mountainous terrain that he knows so well in the state of Sinaloa ... he may never be captured again."

Guzman becameone of the world's top crime bosses, running the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, which smuggled billions of dollars worth of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines into the United States and fought vicious turf wars with other Mexican gangs.

US Attorney General Loretta Lynch, noting Guzman faces multiple drug trafficking and organized crime charges in the United States, said Washington shared Mexico's concern over the escape.

"The US government stands ready to work with our Mexican partners to provide any assistance that may help support his swift recapture," she said in a statement.

This is actually the second time that Guzman has escaped, after he bribed his way out of prison in 2001. He eluded capture for 13 years, until being found in his home province of Sinaloa in 2014.