El Chapo.Photo: Susana Gonzalez/Bloomberg via Getty Images
The government of Mexico is giving away the home where Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán famously escaped from marines in 2014 in a national lottery.
Tickets began selling for about $12 on Wednesday, a day before Mexico’s Independence Day, theAssociated PressandThe Washington Postreported.
Mexico’s Institute to Return Stolen Goods to the People, known as INDEP, is hailing the efforts to sell the property in the Culiacán neighborhood and has valued it at $183,000, according to the AP.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador showed the home during a June 16press conference, and said the proceeds from the auction will benefit medicine, vaccines, scholarships and road construction across the country.
“It is about returning to the people, the town, what was confiscated … all that we can raffle off so that what is obtained is destined for the development of the nation and welfare of the people,” the president said, per thePost.
Fernando Llano/AP/Shutterstock
INDEP officials, who asked to remain anonymous, told the outlet that the home isn’t luxurious like El Chapo’s other properties, noting that there was no pool or added amenities.
The special sale marks the second time the government has tried to auction the property, per AP. The outlet noted that the agency started bidding at roughly $130,000 last year, but didn’t have any success.
El Chapo.STR/AFP via Getty Images
El Chapo would be recaptured and escape several times over the years after the mission in 2014 at the Culiacán property.
In 2016,he was recapturednearly seven months after his daring escape from a high-security prison outside Mexico City.
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The following year he wasextradited to the United States, PEOPLE confirmed in 2017. The U.S. Justice Department charged the drug kingpin in six separate indictments, per astatementreleased at the time.
A federal judge in New York City sentenced El Chapo to life in prison in 2019, theNew York Timesreported. He is serving his sentence of life in prison, plus 30 years, in Colorado’s Supermax prison, perCNN.
source: people.com
