'El Chapo' Guzmán's Escape Tunnel Gets Exhibit In Vegas Mob Museum

It was a great day for aspiring presidential candidate Donald Trump last July 12, when Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán escaped prison for a second time. The mogul thought this helped make his point that all Mexican immigrants are drug traffickers and rapists. “Mexico's biggest drug lord escapes from jail. Unbelievable corruption and USA is paying the price. I told you so!,” he tweeted.

In any case, the important thing was that the leader of the Sinaloa Cartel had fled a maximum-security prison for the second time. Guzmán was last seen in the showers area at the Altiplano prison outside Mexico City before his escape through a massive tunnel. Security said in a statement that "El Chapo" went to the showers just before 9pm Saturday and was not seen after that. When security checked his cell, it was empty and he was nowhere to be found.

But how did he pull that off, you ask? Through a majestic mile-long tunnel that was 5.5” high and almost 3 ft. wide. In fact, the tunnel was so perfectly carved that the Mob Museum in Las Vegas, Nevada thought it merited its very own exhibit.

Master model builder Shawn Bicker and Adam Throgmorton created a 3-D mockup of the prison with the escape tunnel, and its safehouse, for an exhibit titled “El Chapo’s Great Escape,” that will run until August. Despite having ample experience making models for other resorts such as the MGM Grand and the Bellagio, Throgmorton said the research aspect of making this particular one, was the real challenge. “When building this model we always had to keep going back to the story, trying to create something simple to understand for everyone who is not familiar with all the facts,” he told Fusion.

The model expert also explained that his first thought, when the project came to mind was to make an “ant-farm,” type situation. Where spectators could have a good perspective on the exact conditions of the Hollywoodesque escape.