Donald Trump beefs up security following El Chapo threats
US-presidential hopeful Donald Trump has beefed up security after receiving a direct threat from Mexico's billion dollar drugs lord El Chapo who escaped from a maximum security jail last week. Trump said he has 'officials hanging out of trees' following the threat by El Chapo, real name Joaquin Guzman, head of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel.
El Chapo made his jail break on Saturday morning and is on the run from Altiplano jail, 50 miles outside of Mexico City, security officials said.
His audacious escape saw him dash through the mile-long tunnel system, which led to a building under construction next to the prison - from where he collected clothes left for him by his conspirators.
But following his escape he has taken to Twitter and used it to hit back at Trump, who has said that Guzman embodies 'everything that is wrong with Mexico' and added he would 'kick his ass'.
On the account, administered by Guzman's son Ivan, the escapee reportedly wrote: 'If you keep p****** me off I'm going to make you eat your words you f****** blonde milk-s*****'.
In Mexico, a milk-s****** is a homophobic slur.
The billionaire property magnate has called in the FBI to investigate the source of the Twitter account which warned Trump he would be sorry he spoke out against Mexico.
According to the New York Post, at a ripping-cutting ceremony at his new winery and bed and breakfast in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Tuesday, Trump arrived with extra security.
He told reporters: 'We have officials all over the place, including right outside hanging out in trees.'
After his jail break, Guzman also started calling death threats on those who have supposedly betrayed him, including El Chabelo, the current incarcerated boss of Sinaloa's rival cartel the Zetas.
He wrote: 'First to die is El Chabelo, for wanting to see me die in prison.'
He then hinted that the authorities had been complicit in the jailbreak by posting: 'The dog (slang for the Mexican government) dances for money, and I've bought it.'
The full extent of El Chapo's astonishing escape has been revealed by satellite images of the area surrounding the Mexican jail.
Aerial images of the jail and the surrounding countryside reveal just how complex the escape operation was, as a construction site sprang up over the course of a year just a mile from the Altiplano jail.
Given the sheer size of the operation, questions are being asked as to how no one at the jail reported noticing anything out of the ordinary.
Guzman began his escape at 8.52pm on Saturday.
He entered the shower block at the high-security prison and, unnoticed by any guards, pried open a 50cm by 50cm grill in the floor of the shower block and climbed 32 feet down a ladder into a tunnel below the prison.
From there he used a motorbike that was waiting at the bottom for him to ride through the tunnel to freedom.
A miracle of subterranean construction, the remarkable tunnel was complete with air vents, electric lights and emergency oxygen tanks.
Although not a tall man - El Chapo means 'the shorty' in Spanish - the 5ft 6in gang lord was able to make his getaway standing upright in the 5.57 feet-high tunnel.
Neighbours have reported that a team of no more than four men were involved in constructing the tunnel, but the skilled workers stuck to a gruelling schedule of 10 hours a day for almost an entire year.
The engineers were forced to twice change the direction of the tunnel, in order to avoid the most sensitive areas of the prison, located 50 miles outside of Mexico City.
The underground getaway route carved a nearly mile-long path deep below the prison, before opening into a construction site in Santa Juana, hidden inside a ready-made house that was simple and understated.