El Chapo’s Great Escape: Display closing on September 1
Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman
“Compared to Guzman, Al Capone looks like an amateur.” – J.R. Davis, president of the Chicago Crime Commission.
This temporary display focuses on the life of the world’s largest drug trafficker and escape artist.
Display features:
- Architectural model of the Mexican prison and tunnels tracing El Chapo’s escape route. Read more about the model here, including pictures
- Extensive details on El Chapo’s prison escapes and 2016 capture
- Implications of his bizarre interview with actor Sean Penn
The detailed diorama shows the elaborate escape route, including a 32-foot vertical tunnel descending from his prison cell, a horizontal tunnel running 4,921 feet away from the prison, along which Guzman rode on a specially modified motorcycle, and another vertical tunnel that carried him up through the floor of another building, where he met his associates and got away.
The temporary display opened March 1 and is accompanied by a video documenting Guzman’s story. It replaces a display profiling the FIFA soccer scandal, in which numerous world soccer officials were indicted on charges of taking bribes and kickbacks.
Found in the first floor International Organized Crime exhibit room