Group that helped drug lord escape from prison dismantled, Mexican AG says

All the members of the group "that planned organized and carried out the escape" have been arrested, Gomez said in a statement.

Guzman escaped from the Altiplano I federal prison in central Mexico through a 1.5-kilometer (nearly one-mile) on July 11.

The AG provided new details on the escape, saying that the drug lord was driven to San Juan del Rio, a city in Queretaro state, after he got out of the prison.

Gomez said Guzman was flown from there to an unspecified hiding place.

Media reports, however, said that the drug lord is hiding in his home state of Sinaloa, located in northwestern Mexico.

Two of the suspects under arrest were responsible for flying the two small planes in San Juan del Rio, the AG said.

One of the men "is a long-time pilot for the criminal organization run by Guzman Loera," Gomez said.

Intelligence reports confirm that the pilots have flown drugs for the Sinaloa cartel, Gomez said.

A total of 34 people, including prison officials, have been arrested in connection with Guzman's escape, the AG said.

Guzman is the subject of a $5 million reward in the United States and has a price of 60 million pesos ($3.8 million) on his head in Mexico.

The drug lord had been held at the Altiplano I prison in Mexico state, which surrounds the Federal District and forms part of the Mexico City metropolitan area, since his arrest on Feb. 22, 2014.

Guzman faces drug, money laundering and criminal conspiracy charges in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego.

The drug lord's son, Ivan Archivaldo Guzman Salazar, known as "El Chapito," and another Sinaloa cartel boss, Ismael "El Mayo" Zambada, also face charges in the United States.

The Drug Enforcement Administration added Guzman to its most-wanted list on July 16 and the Chicago Crime Commission once again named the drug lord "Public Enemy No. 1," the dubious honor he had held before being captured last year.

Al Capone had been declared public enemy No. 1 by the Midwestern city in 1930 and no other criminal had been given the dubious distinction since the Prohibition-era gangster.

Guzman, who was born in 1957, got his start in the drug business as a lieutenant of Miguel Angel Felix-Gallardo, the top leader of the Guadalajara cartel, in the 1980s.

Felix-Gallardo's arrest and prosecution in 1989 led to the Guadalajara cartel being divided up and Guzman relocating to Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, and founding the Sinaloa cartel.

Guzman was eventually captured in 1993 in Guatemala and sent back to Mexico, where he was convicted on bribery charges.

On Jan. 19, 2001, Guzman escaped from the Puente Grande penitentiary in the western state of Jalisco, pulling off the Hollywood-style jailbreak by hiding in a cart full of dirty laundry in front of guards.

The Mexican drug kingpin's wealth led to his name regularly appearing on Forbes magazine's list of global billionaires.