El-Chapo Escape Transportation, pics?

[Nehmo]

The CNN article about El Chapo makes a lot of the motorcycle but doesn't provide a pic. They say the bike was adapted to run on a rail and was used to remove the excavated material. I'd like more details on this arrangement. How did the tunnel-diggers balance a load of excavated material on a bike? Was the entire 1.5 km tunnel excavated in secret? They must have had a trailer of some kind.
In any case, 4 wheels, because they are self-balancing, seems like the only reasonable suspension arrangement for a vehicle designed to carry dirt.
Naturally, considering noise and exhaust limitations, I would recommend an e-vehicle for this application. If you're planning from the ground up, and the bike is dedicated to the tunnel, and considering line-power is available, a hot "3rd" rail is a good idea.

 

[Dauntless]

CBS Radio was reporting the use of a motorcycle ENGINE. 19th century steam engines sat on the surface pulling up ore cars, etc. We'll probably be getting conflicting interpretations from the news agencies for awhile. This is an example of why I say they don't so much lie as just make bad assumptions.

 

[Nehmo]

The motorcycle is a diesel.
RT's tunnel tour.
The Mexican RT chicks have enough lipstick to do a Progressive Insurance commercial, but I agree it's better than looking at some sissy guy. Anyway, considering the characteristics of the construction, it's clearly Mexican. You know what I mean if you've been involved in building trades in America. Also, I can tell that none of us ESers were involved; they were using lead-acid batteries.

 

[dogman dan]

Kind of interesting frontline show on Chapo last night on PBS. Stream it free on the PBS website if you want to see it. He pretty much owned the prison he was in back in the 90's, then left when he wanted to so as to avoid extradition. This time he stayed less time.

Serious money, pretty much able to buy Mexican presidents. Love the bit about how every time the army choppers fly, they get 3 hours warning of it. He just vanishes into the hills when they come to his house.

Just unbelievable how many killed by the Sinaloa cartel just across the border. Calmer now in the last 2 years, because Sinaloa won the war.

 

[Nehmo]

Kind of interesting frontline show on Chapo last night on PBS. Stream it free on the PBS website if you want to see it. He pretty much owned the prison he was in back in the 90's, then left when he wanted to so as to avoid extradition. This time he stayed less time.

Serious money, pretty much able to buy Mexican presidents. Love the bit about how every time the army choppers fly, they get 3 hours warning of it. He just vanishes into the hills when they come to his house.

Just unbelievable how many killed by the Sinaloa cartel just across the border. Calmer now in the last 2 years, because Sinaloa won the war.

I've (when I was younger, I'm afraid) been to Sonora, Mexico (the state north of Sinaloa) numerous times, and many people suggested I take the train further down to Sinaloa. There are Americans living all over Mexico, and I wouldn't be afraid go going anywhere in the country. I suspect that relative to high murder rate here in the US, Mexico probably isn't that bad.
Anyway, most people I talked with weren't scared of the ~shutter~ drug cartels. They were much more afraid of the official Mexican authorities. (BTW, lots of local police and even Federales don't wear uniforms, and they drive stolen American pick-ups. So, from the outside, they look like just any gang.) During the period I was going to Mexico, the government killed about 150 people in the main square of Mexico City (Tlatelolco Plaza). The story wasn't covered at all in the American press.
IOW, you really can't tell what to believe. And this Chapo guy, I don't get it. If he has "billions", how did he get locked up in the first place? Billions will buy your way out even in the US.

 

[dogman dan]

It did buy his way out. And when he went in, it was so he could relax, and have a vacation. Seen Mariachi? Think that scene at the start is a joke? It's not.

Yeah right. You couldn't be more wrong about the murder rate in Mexico, since about 2005. But it has calmed down a lot the last 3 years, Chapo won.

I agree, the resorts and ex pat colonies deeper in Mexico are relatively unaffected by the corruption and narco wars. Even as far north as Chihuahua city, it never got all that bad, though the murder rate in that city was about 10x the worst ever seen in any USA city. For the most part in 90% of Mexico, as long as you weren't in the other cartel, the Sinaloa boys weren't very likely to hose you down with an AK 47. Just don't try driving around the countryside in the hills near the border without Sinaloa's permission though, especially anywhere near the poppy fields, or Chapo's moms house. This area is northern Sonora and Chihuahua. Same place where it was so hard to get to, when they were chasing Geronimo, and Pancho Villa

Chapo is from Sinaloa, but that state was relatively unaffected by the narco war. After all, nobody was fool enough to move into that area and start doing business. What started the war, was the Sinaloa boys muscling in on the entire frontera. Starting in Coahuila in Nuevo Laredo, they began taking over the Rio Grande smuggling routes, eventually working their way all the way to Baja. As they went, they shot it out with the local drug lords, who btw had for about 50 years been the local police. You got that part right for sure. But Chapo, the Sinaloa cartel wanted it all.


This resulted in a murder rate in Juarez, 40 miles from my house, of about 5-30 bodies a day. A DAY! The average was about 10 a day, close to 4000 a year. This went on for almost 5 years. That number is just Juarez. Just as bad in Laredo, Nogales, TJ etc. The bodies were piling up much faster in Mexico than in Iraq. In Juarez, it was not safe to go buy groceries, because at any moment they'd arrive and kill somebody, and in the process they'd hose down mothers, children, anybody in the store or the parking lot. Bullets would hit cars or buildings just across the river in El Paso. 99% of all factories and half the stores in Juarez shut down. The nightclubs and such all crossed the border and re opened in El Paso. Huge numbers of people started living In El Paso, since mom had crossed to have them born on the US side. Came in real handy this time!

Like I said, it's calmed down a lot. (Chapo won) The murder rate is more or less back to normal in Juarez, typically about 5 a day, and mostly just the routine rape murders that have been a sport in that town for 25 years. Murder is still so easy in Juarez, that any deviants take it there, resulting in El Paso having the lowest murder rate in the entire USA.