Watch “Got Shorty: Inside the Chase for El Chapo,” a special report from CNN’s Chris Cuomo, at 8 p.m. ET Sunday on CNN.

Tunnels have long been a mainstay of Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s operations. Experts say Guzman’s underground hideaways helped him escape authorities.

A mile-long tunnel that starts inside a prison cell. A secret passageway behind a mirror that connects to a city sewer system.

Throughout Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s reign at the helm of one of Mexico’s most ruthless cartels, tunnels have been a mainstay of how the notorious drug kingpin hid out from authorities hot on his trail and built an empire that landed him on Forbes magazine’s list of the world’s richest moguls.

Investigators suspected they were closing in on Guzman in 2014 when they discovered seven houses in Culiacan, Mexico, connected by secret tunnels that also tied in with the sewage system.

“This particular house had bars on the windows. The front door was reinforced, and was so difficult to get in, it was like 10 minutes went by,” said Derek Maltz, who once led the Drug Enforcement Administration’s special operations division.

The time it took Mexican marines to get past the reinforced steel doors was enough to allow Guzman to escape. His route.

The nearest safe house was 3 kilometers (almost 2 miles) away, but thanks to the network of tunnels, Guzman was able to slip out of sight once again.

But he wouldn’t remain behind bars for long. Just 14 months after Guzman landed in Mexico’s maximum-security Altiplano prison, he broke out in July 2015.

After Guzman’s getaway, authorities said they made a shocking find underground: a lighted and ventilated tunnel, replete with tracks and a modified motorcycle inside.

That opening, officials said, connected to a vertical passageway going about 10 meters (33 feet) underground.

Inside the passageway, investigators found what Rubido described as an “adapted motorcycle on tracks that was likely used to remove dirt during the excavation and transport the tools for the dig.”. In one respect, the tunnel was notably different from others Guzman’s Sinaloa cartel had built.

“It was arrow straight,” said Jim Dinkins, the former head of investigation for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

“Look – the boss, El Chapo, is in prison. You’re not going to bring in the B squad,” Dinkins said.

One Mexican official estimated the tunnel took about a year to build, and that whoever built it took out about 350 truckloads worth of sand and dirt.

Crews started building the house in December 2014, then stopped a few months later, according to a farmer who lived nearby. The facade appeared to be finished around February or March, the farmer said, but workers kept moving dirt around the property for months – until the day before Guzman’s escape, when all of them were gone.

By early 2016, Mexican authorities had once again homed in on Guzman’s trail. This time, they zeroed in on a simple white concrete compound in Los Mochis, a coastal city in Guzman’s home state of Sinaloa.

Dramatic video shows troops raiding the home, guns blazing.

The Sinaloa cartel boss, authorities later discovered, had slipped into an escape hatch behind a mirror.

Police captured Guzman later that day. And since then, he’s been behind bars.

But investigators who’ve followed Guzman’s career say there’s no doubt there are other hideaways out there – and that the cartel boss could try to escape again.

Chasing ‘El Chapo’: Prison breaks, hideaways and life on the lam. CNN’s Chris Cuomo, Michelle Rozsa, Nick Valencia, Elwyn Lopez, Brian Todd and Poppy Harlow and CNN en Español’s Rodrigo Aguiar contributed to this report.

A group of inmates making elaborate escape plans, smuggling tools to pick locks and cut through bars, crawling through small shafts in the middle of the night, maybe even a dramatic police chase – if this is what you imagine a prison break to be like, you are NOT off the mark.

Surely, a lot of planning goes into breaking out of a maximum security site. Nonetheless, that does not stop inmates from trying to break out.

However, sometimes, no level of security is enough to keep some people locked in. Every once in a while, some prison escapees manage to slip away.

Secure amidst the waters of the San Francisco Bay, Alcatraz Prison Island caged some of the most notorious prisoners. Known as “The Rock”, the prison was seemingly impossible to break out of.

Naturally, a riot broke out between the prisoners and the guards. In their attempt to taste sweet freedom, some prisoners were killed, others were captured, but three men were never seen again.

They placed the realistic looking dummies in their beds while they climbed through the holes that they had built in the walls of their cells. However, getting out of the cells was only half the work.

What’s even more amazing is that their raft was made out of inflated musical instruments that they managed to sneak out of the music room.

What happened after that remains a mystery to this day. Did they make it to shore and lived their lives as free men.

However, on the 50th anniversary of the notorious escape, in an interview with the Daily Mail, the sisters of the Anglin brothers revealed that they have always believed that their brothers made it out safely, “I’ve always believed they made it, and I haven’t changed my mind about that,” said one of the sisters, Marie Widner.

Born on February 10, 1932, he had always been a troublemaker for law enforcement. In fact, a newspaper article once described his bizarre incidents with police officers.

Instead of sorting things out calmly, Bergevin accelerated through an intersection as the policeman dangled from the side of his car.

For breaking into a drug store, he was sentenced to a Michigan prison for a decade in 1962. However, in 1969, Bergevin appealed for a transfer to a lower security site.

He claimed that he wanted to attend a dental technician training program that was offered at the camp. Prison officials expressed their concerns about his misconducts.

What the law enforcement authorities did not know was that Bergevin never planned to take the program. He disappeared shortly after he was moved to Camp Waterloo in Illinois.

An elaborate search operation was carried out to find out the whereabouts of the escapee. Official records show that in 2009, the officials were tipped that Bergevin was living in a house in Detroit.

According to the neighbors, the house had been vacant for years.

They followed every tip, checked all government records, interviewed friends, family and acquaintances. However, there was no sign of Bergevin.

It was like he dropped off the face of the earth. After years of searching, the police finally called off the search in 2013, when Bergevin would have been 80 years old.

He had a wife and three daughters. In fact, his granddaughter, Angela Michels, is still adamant to fit together the pieces of the mysterious vanishing of her grandfather.

They were pretty poor. They had three daughters, and stole a lot from farmers markets to feed their three kids.” Surprisingly, she believes that her grandfather died a long time ago.

While it is infrequent for men to attempt prison breaks, it is even rarer for women to escape from high-security sites. However, over the years, there have been a number of women who have tried and succeeded in evading the long arms of the law.

Also known as Assata Shakur, Chesimard was the member of the Black Liberation Army. It is important to note that the Black Liberation Army had evident ties with the Black Panther Party, which led an armed struggle against the US government and employed tactics like killing officers and robbing banks.

Finally, in 1973, she was captured and convicted for the first-degree murder of State Trooper Werner Foerster. According to the official reports, she was involved in a robbery.

Chesimard was sentenced for life plus 30 years in jail and was sent to the Clinton Correctional Facility for Women in New Jersey. However, only five years later, she made a dramatic escape with the help of her friends in the Black Liberation Army.

Her involvement in the cold-blooded murder of a police officer and her notorious escape from prison eventually led her to become the first women to make it on the FBI’s Most Wanted Terrorists List. Five years after escaping from correctional officers and her stationed facility, Chesimard fled to Cuba, where she was offered political asylum.

It may be possible to wrap your mind around the idea of a convict breaking out of prison. However, what are the chances that the same person can do it twice.

And on his second try, he vanished for good – never to be found again.

He lived a quiet life in Palm Springs, California and had never gotten in trouble with the law. However, all that changed in 1980, when Godwin planned a robbery with his roommate, Frank Soto.

The two men lured the victim into their condo, where they ultimately killed him. Godwin stabbed LeValley 26 times with a knife.

Despite their efforts, the heinous crime was discovered and Godwin was convicted for the murder of Kim LeValley. He was sentenced to serve 26-years-to-life sentence in Folsom State prison in California.

He cut the bars in the prison yard and climbed the drain pipe to freedom. Nonetheless, his newly acquired freedom was short-lived.

This time, he was sentenced to prison in Guadalajara, where his behavior remained the same. In fact, it was believed that he murdered a fellow inmate during his time in the Mexican prison.

In 1991, Godwin made a run for his freedom and managed to escape – again. In 1996, his name was added to the list of “Top Ten Most Wanted Fugitives” by FBI.

To this date, there’s a reward of $20,000 for any information leading to his arrest. Glen Stark Chambers was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1975 for beating his girlfriend, Connie Weeks, to death.

Things got heated between them and they broke into a fight. Pulling Weeks out of her car, Glen started beating her in the middle of a parking lot.

That night, unaware of the repercussions of her actions, Weeks went ahead to bail Glen out. Only a few hours later, Glen beat her to death.

He managed to hide in a truck that was leaving the institution. Before the driver could detect the new passenger, Glen ditched the ride and made a run for his freedom.

Over the years, he has been reported to be living in a number of states including Minnesota and Alabama. But, somehow, he was always one step ahead of the detectives.

Erich Weisz (March 24, 1874 – October 31, 1926), known as Harry Houdini (/huːˈdiːni/ hoo-DEE-nee), was a Hungarian-American escape artist, illusionist, and stunt performer, noted for his escape acts. His pseudonym is a reference to his mentor in magic, French magician Robert-Houdin (1805–1871).

He first attracted notice in vaudeville in the United States and then as “Harry ‘Handcuff’ Houdini” on a tour of Europe, where he challenged police forces to keep him locked up. Soon he extended his repertoire to include chains, ropes slung from skyscrapers, straitjackets under water, and having to escape from and hold his breath inside a sealed milk can with water in it.

In 1904, thousands watched as he tried to escape from special handcuffs commissioned by London’s Daily Mirror, keeping them in suspense for an hour. Another stunt saw him buried alive and only just able to claw himself to the surface, emerging in a state of near-breakdown.

As President of the Society of American Magicians, he was keen to uphold professional standards and expose fraudulent artists. He was also quick to sue anyone who imitated his escape stunts.

Houdini made several movies but quit acting when it failed to bring in money. He was also a keen aviator and aimed to become the first man to fly a powered aircraft in Australia.

Erich Weisz was born in Budapest, Kingdom of Hungary to a Jewish family. His parents were Rabbi Mayer Sámuel Weisz (1829–1892) and Cecília Steiner (1841–1913).

(1863–1885), who was Houdini’s half-brother by Rabbi Weisz’s first marriage. Nathan J.

Gottfried William (1872–1925). Theodore (1876–1945).

(1879–1962). and Carrie Gladys (1882–1959), who was left almost blind after a childhood accident.

Weisz arrived in the United States on July 3, 1878, on the SS Frisia with his mother (who was pregnant) and his four brothers. The family changed their name to the German spelling Weiss, and Erich became Ehrich.

According to the 1880 census, the family lived on Appleton Street in an area that is now known as Houdini Plaza. On June 6, 1882, Rabbi Weiss became an American citizen.

In 1887, Rabbi Weiss moved with Erich to New York City, where they lived in a boarding house on East 79th Street. He was joined by the rest of the family once Rabbi Weiss found permanent housing.

He was also a champion cross country runner in his youth.

Weiss incorrectly believed that an i at the end of a name meant “like” in French. However, “i” at the end of the name means “belong to” in Hungarian.

When he was a teenager, Houdini was coached by the magician Joseph Rinn at the Pastime Athletic Club.

He appeared in a tent act with strongman Emil Jarrow. He performed in dime museums and sideshows, and even doubled as “The Wild Man” at a circus.

At one point, he billed himself as the “King of Cards”. Some – but not all – professional magicians would come to regard Houdini as a competent but not particularly skilled sleight-of-hand artist, lacking the grace and finesse required to achieve excellence in that craft.

In the early 1890s, Houdini was performing with his brother “Dash” (Theodore) as “The Brothers Houdini”. : 160 The brothers performed at the Chicago World’s Fair in 1893 before returning to New York City and working at Huber’s Dime Museum for “near-starvation wages”.

Bess was initially courted by Dash, but she and Houdini married, with Bess replacing Dash in the act, which became known as “The Houdinis”. For the rest of Houdini’s performing career, Bess worked as his stage assistant.

Houdini’s big break came in 1899 when he met manager Martin Beck in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Within months, he was performing at the top vaudeville houses in the country. In 1900, Beck arranged for Houdini to tour Europe.

Dundas Slater, then manager of the Alhambra Theatre. He was introduced to William Melville and gave a demonstration of escape from handcuffs at Scotland Yard.

His show was an immediate hit and his salary rose to $300 a week (equivalent to $10,553 in 2022).

He also toured the Netherlands, Germany, France, and Russia and became widely known as “The Handcuff King”. In each city, Houdini challenged local police to restrain him with shackles and lock him in their jails.

In Moscow, he escaped from a Siberian prison transport van, : 163 claiming that, had he been unable to free himself, he would have had to travel to Siberia, where the only key was kept.

Houdini won the case when he opened the judge’s safe (he later said the judge had forgotten to lock it). With his new-found wealth, Houdini purchased a dress said to have been made for Queen Victoria.

Houdini said it was the happiest day of his life. In 1904, Houdini returned to the U.S.

113th Street in Harlem, New York City.

He did not receive permission but still visited the grave. Houdini believed that he had been treated unfairly and later wrote a negative account of the incident in his magazine, claiming he was “treated most discourteously by Madame W.

In 1906, he sent a letter to the French magazine L’Illusionniste stating: “You will certainly enjoy the article on Robert Houdin I am about to publish in my magazine. Yes, my dear friend, I think I can finally demolish your idol, who has so long been placed on a pedestal that he did not deserve.”.

It was a competitor to The Sphinx, but was short-lived and only two volumes were released until August 1908. Magic historian Jim Steinmeyer has noted that “Houdini couldn’t resist using the journal for his own crusades, attacking his rivals, praising his own appearances, and subtly rewriting history to favor his view of magic.”.

He freed himself from jails, handcuffs, chains, ropes, and straitjackets, often while hanging from a rope in sight of street audiences. Because of imitators, Houdini put his “handcuff act” behind him on January 25, 1908, and began escaping from a locked, water-filled milk can.

Houdini also expanded his repertoire with his escape challenge act, in which he invited the public to devise contraptions to hold him. These included nailed packing crates (sometimes lowered into water), riveted boilers, wet sheets, mail bags, and even the belly of a whale that had washed ashore in Boston.

Many of these challenges were arranged with local merchants in one of the first uses of mass tie-in marketing. Rather than promote the idea that he was assisted by spirits, as did the Davenport Brothers and others, Houdini’s advertisements showed him making his escapes via dematerializing, although Houdini himself never claimed to have supernatural powers.

After much research, Houdini wrote a collection of articles on the history of magic, which were expanded into The Unmasking of Robert-Houdin published in 1908. In this book he attacked his former idol Robert-Houdin as a liar and a fraud for having claimed the invention of automata and effects such as aerial suspension, which had been in existence for many years.

The Mountjoy Prison helicopter escape occurred on 31 October 1973 when three Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteers escaped from Mountjoy Prison in Dublin, Ireland, by boarding a hijacked helicopter that briefly landed in the prison’s exercise yard.

The Wolfe Tones wrote a song celebrating the escape called “The Helicopter Song”, which topped the Irish popular music charts.

As a result of increasing levels of violence in Northern Ireland, internment without trial was introduced there in August 1971, and in the Republic of Ireland the coalition government led by Fine Gael’s Liam Cosgrave was attempting to curb IRA activity. Fine Gael had come to power on a law and order ticket, with a policy of “getting tough on crime”.

They were tried at the juryless Special Criminal Court in Dublin, where the traditional IRA policy of not recognising the court resulted in a fait accompli as no defence was offered and IRA membership carried a minimum mandatory one-year sentence, resulting in internment in all but name.

By October 1973 the IRA’s command structure was seriously curbed, with Twomey and other senior republicans J. B.

The IRA immediately began making plans to break Twomey, O’Hagan and Mallon out of the prison. The first attempt involved explosives that had been smuggled into the prison, which were to be used to blow a hole in a door which would give the prisoners access to the exercise yard.

The plan failed when the prisoners could not gain access to the exercise yard and the rope ladder was spotted, so the IRA began making new escape plans. The idea of using a helicopter in an escape had been discussed before, an idea to break Gerry Adams out of Long Kesh internment camp had been ruled out because of faster and more sophisticated British Army helicopters being stationed at a nearby base.

A man with an American accent calling himself Mr. Leonard approached the manager of Irish Helicopters at Dublin Airport, with a view to hiring a helicopter for an aerial photographic shoot in County Laois.

Leonard arrived at Irish Helicopters on 31 October and was introduced to the pilot of the helicopter, Captain Thompson Boyes. Boyes was instructed to fly to a field in Stradbally, in order to pick up Leonard’s photographic equipment.

Boyes was held at gunpoint and told he would not be harmed if he followed instructions. Leonard left with one gunman, while the other gunman climbed aboard the helicopter armed with a pistol and an Armalite rifle.

As the helicopter approached Dublin, Boyes was informed of the escape plan and instructed to land in the exercise yard at Mountjoy Prison.

Shortly after 3:35 pm the helicopter swung in to land in the prison yard, with Kevin Mallon directing the pilot using semaphore. A prison officer on duty initially took no action as he believed the helicopter contained the Minister for Defence, Paddy Donegan.

As other prisoners restrained the officers, Twomey, Mallon and O’Hagan boarded the helicopter. As the helicopter took off, in the confusion one officer shouted “Close the gates, close the fucking gates”.

Boyes was released unharmed, and the escapees were transferred to a taxi that had been hijacked earlier and transported to safe houses.

An emergency debate on security was held in Dáil Éireann on 1 November, where leader of the opposition Jack Lynch stated:. It is poetic justice that a helicopter is now at the heart of the Government’s embarrassment and in the centre of their dilemma.

The IRA released a statement on the escape, which read, “Three republican prisoners were rescued by a special unit from Mountjoy Prison on Wednesday. The operation was a complete success and the men are now safe, despite a massive hunt by Free State forces”.

Irish rebel band the Wolfe Tones wrote a song celebrating the escape called “The Helicopter Song”, which was immediately banned by the government yet still topped the Irish popular music charts after selling twelve thousand copies in a single week.

In order to prevent any further escapes the perimeter of the prison was guarded by members of the Irish Army, and wires were erected over the prison yard to prevent any future helicopter escape. Cosgrave stated there would be “no hiding place” for the escapees, and a manhunt involving twenty thousand members of the Irish Defence Forces and Garda Síochána ensued.

He escaped from there in a mass break-out on 18 August 1974, when nineteen prisoners escaped after overpowering guards and using gelignite to blast through the gates. He was recaptured in Foxrock in January 1975 and returned to Portlaoise Prison.

After the end of his original twelve-month sentence, he was immediately arrested and sentenced to a further two years imprisonment for escaping. Twomey evaded recapture until 2 December 1977, when he was spotted sitting in a car in Sandycove by members of the Garda’s Special Branch who were investigating an arms shipment after a tip-off from police in Belgium.

He was also imprisoned in Portlaoise Prison until his release in 1982.