The world's most-wanted drug lord, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, narrowly escaped capture last week as Mexican authorities closed in on his hideout in the country's northwest — but not without sustaining injuries to his face and leg.
Guzman, the head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, escaped from a maximum-security prison in July through a sophisticated mile-long tunnel that had been fitted with stairs, ventilation, and an adapted motorcycle on rails.
The Mexican government said in a statement Friday it had coordinated efforts with international authorities that led to the new hunt for the notorious fugitive. According to NBC News, U.S. drug agents intercepted cell phone communications that led Mexican authorities to a ranch near the small city of Cosala in the state of Sinaloa.
Mexican marines launched an aerial raid on the ranch where they believed Guzman was hiding but were forced to retreat after coming under heavy gunfire. Troops later entered the ranch on foot but Guzman and others had already escaped, possibly on ATVs, three unnamed sources with knowledge of the operation told NBC.
Villagers in the area said the military operation sparked an intense firefight that left people running for cover, homes riddled with bullet holes, and several injured as they attempted to flee the violence.
For more than an hour and a half, "all I could hear was shooting," a woman told the Los Angeles Times. Hundreds fled the area on foot, walking for days through the Sierra Madre mountain range to safety and suffering from dehydration and other injuries.
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Video footage shows Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman's escape from a maximum-security Mexican prison in July.
"As a result of these actions, and to avoid his capture, in recent days, the fugitive engaged in a hasty retreat, which, according to the information received, caused him injuries to one leg and the face," the government said in a statement.
"It's important to clarify that these injuries were not a product of a direct clash," the statement continued. "The security cabinet continues to conduct all actions that will allow the recapture of this criminal."
The operation to recapture Guzman came after his stunning prison escape in July dealt a major credibility blow to the administration of President Enrique Peña Nieto, and marked the second time the drug kingpin has managed to escape from a maximum security prison in Mexico.
In 2001, he fled Puente Grande prison, where he had been incarcerated since 1993. There were varying accounts of how he pulled it off, but many involved Guzman hiding in a laundry cart.
"These kinds of things cannot happen without the complicity of high authorities," Jorge Chabat, a drug and security expert at CIDE, a Mexico-based research institute, told BuzzFeed News.
The U.S. State Department is offering a $5 million reward for information leading to Guzman's arrest.
BuzzFeed News reporter Adolfo Flores contributed to this report.