Mexico Prison Escape: 'El Chapo'-Style Tunnel Used As Dozens Break Out Of Tamaulipas

Dozens of inmates escaped from a prison in Mexico on Thursday by using an underground tunnel that officials believe took months to dig, Mexico News Daily reported. The prison break was reminiscent of Mexican drug lord Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán, who staged his own daring escape through a miles-long tunnel under a different Mexican prison in 2015.

At least 10 of the 29 inmates who escaped Thursday were re-captured, but the others remained at large after using a tunnel under a prison in the state of Tamaulipas that was more than 131 feet long. The tunnel was more than 16 feet deep beneath the prison in Ciudad Victoria, the capital city of Tamaulipas.

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The escapees carjacked and killed a driver after surfacing from the tunnel, which Governor Francisco García Cabeza de Vaca said likely took months to dig.

Prison breaks in Mexico have been fairly common in recent years. The son of a Mexican drug kingpin escaped from a Mexican prison last week, the Associated Press reported. Juan Jose Esparragoza Monzon broke out of the prison with four other inmates. Monzon's father is Juan Jose "El Azul" Esparragoza Moreno, one of the leaders of the notorious Sinaloa drug cartel which was led by El Chapo before he was arrested and extradited to the U.S., where he was facing a number of drug and murder charges.

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El Chapo's most recent prison escape — he's successfully fled prison's confines at least once before — involved a 1-mile long tunnel 10 feet deep, with a motorcycle on rails used to expedite the prison break in July of 2015. He was ultimately arrested again in January 2016 and extradited to New York City about a year later to face a bevy of drug-related and murder charges.

Those charges include a 17-count indictment for El Chapo allegedly leading " a continuing criminal enterprise responsible for importing into the United States and distributing massive amounts of illegal narcotics and conspiring to murder persons who posed a threat " to his drug empire, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.