ALMOLOYA DE JUÁREZ, Mexico — Mexican authorities have launched a manhunt to find drug kingpin Joaquin Guzman, who has broken out of prison again, the country’s National Security Commission said Sunday.

Guards at the Altiplano Federal Prison discovered during a routine check on Saturday that Guzman, known as “El Chapo,” was missing, a statement from the commission said.

Guzman escaped through a hole in his cell that led to a lighted and ventilated tunnel nearly a mile long, Mexico National Security spokesman Monte Alejandro Rubido García confirmed Sunday morning at a news conference in Mexico City.

Guzman is the storied boss of one of the world’s most powerful and deadly drug trafficking operations.

Escape’s impact in Colorado

“The question is, how could this happen?” said Tom Gordon, director of the Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area. “I mean, I can’t fathom that they could build a tunnel, put it right up to the prison and have the guy escape and nobody knows about it. How can that happen?”

Gorman says Guzman isn’t just a kingpin who oversaw drug trafficking into the United states. He says Guzman has ordered and overseen thousands of murders.

“He’s a terrorist in my opinion,” Gorman said.

Guzman’s crimes have ties to Colorado. The Rocky Mountain High Intensity Drug Trafficking Area targeted 70 drug trafficking organizations last year. Gorman said 10 percent of those organizations were directly tied to El Chapo’s Sinaloa Cartel, but he says up to 50 percent were likely connected indirectly.

“We have seen a reduction, over the last couple of years or so, in his territory. Some other cartels are moving in,” Gorman said. “Him getting out now, who knows what’s going to happen? It’s a little scary.”

Gorman said it’s only a matter of time before Guzman resumes control of the cartel, that’s what happened the last time he escaped prison in 2001. He spent the following 13 years as a fugitive relying on the same kind of tunnels he used to escape on July 11.

“I mean, if it took us this long to catch him last time, what’s it going to take us this time?” Gorman said. “He’s even smarter now, so are we ever going to catch him?”

Not his first escape

He escaped in 2001 from a high-security prison in a laundry cart and was not apprehended again until 2014, when he was arrested at a Mexican beach resort.

Speaking to reporters Sunday from France, where he is traveling on a state visit, Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto avoided mentioning Guzman by name, but said he was closely following news of the escape of a man who has been among the most wanted criminals in Mexico and around the world.

Peña Nieto said he was “deeply troubled” by “a very unfortunate event that has outraged Mexican society.” He vowed that his government would recapture Guzman, step up prison security and investigate whether any prison workers helped the notorious Sinaloa cartel chief break out.

“This represents, without a doubt, an affront to the Mexican state, but also I am confident that the institutions of the Mexican state, particularly those in charge of public safety, are at the level, with the strength and determination, to recapture this criminal,” Peña Nieto said.

‘The world’s most powerful drug lord’

Guzman heads the Sinaloa Cartel, which the U.S. Justice Department describes as “one of the world’s most prolific, violent and powerful drug cartels.” It says Guzman was “considered the world’s most powerful drug lord until his arrest in Mexico in February 2014.”

“The Sinaloa Cartel moves drugs by land, air, and sea, including cargo aircraft, private aircraft, submarines and other submersible and semi-submersible vessels, container ships, supply vessels, go-fast boats, fishing vessels, buses, rail cars, tractor trailers, trucks, automobiles, and private and commercial interstate and foreign carriers,” the Justice Department said earlier this year.

The trafficking network keeps U.S. drug agents busy. In January, the Justice Department unsealed indictments naming 60 members of the cartel, including Guzman’s son, Ivan Archivaldo Guzman-Salazar, aka “El Chapito.”

The main indictment said the cartel imported cocaine, methamphetamine, marijuana, other drugs and the chemicals necessary to process methamphetamine into Mexico from various countries, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of California said in a news release.

The drugs were then smuggled into San Diego for distribution throughout the United States, the statement said, adding that money was then laundered through a variety of means.

In just one phase of the investigation, which the Justice Department said spanned eight countries and a dozen U.S. states, authorities seized more than 1,400 pounds of methamphetamine, almost 3,000 pounds of cocaine, 12.2 tons of marijuana and 5,500 oxycodone pills, along with $14.1 million.

Also this year, federal authorities announced: Thirty-one people were charged in February with conspiring to launder $100 million for the Sinaloa Cartel in a cash-for-gold scheme; Jose Rodrigo Arechiga-Gamboa, an alleged Sinaloa kingpin who goes by “Chino Antrax,” pleaded guilty in federal court in May to helping coordinate the shipment of tons of marijuana and cocaine into the U.S.; and last month, U.S. officials announced indictments against a Baton Rouge, Louisiana-based trafficking network with ties to Sinaloa.

Toluca International Airport closed

In Mexico, the diminutive Guzman became a larger-than-life figure as he eluded authorities while expanding a drug empire that spanned the world. His life story became the topic of best-selling books and the subject of adoring songs known as narcocorridos.

In the United States, he is wanted on multiple federal drug trafficking and organized crime charges.

His nickname, which means “Shorty,” matches his 5-foot-6-inch frame.

The statement from the National Security Commission said that, at 8:52 p.m. Saturday, surveillance cameras at the Altiplano federal prison saw Guzman approaching a shower area in which prisoners also wash their belongings.

When Guzman was not seen again for some time, officials checked his cell, found it empty, and issued an alert.

Altiplano is a maximum security prison in south central Mexico.

Officials not only launched a manhunt, they also closed Toluca International Airport, a 45-minute drive away.