In Mexican border prison where 30 escaped in deadly attack, inmates ruled cellblocks

MEXICO CITY —  A violent prison break in which 30 inmates escaped and 17 people — mostly guards — were killed has revealed a shocking level of self-rule by inmates inside the prison in Ciudad Juarez, on the northern Mexico border.

Not only were criminals able to sneak guns, drugs and luxury goods into prison No. 3, they actually held the keys to some sections of the facility, which is across the border from El Paso.

“It was evident that the inmates themselves were practically in charge of security, and that on some cellblocks they had the keys to common areas, like classrooms or cafeterias,” said Néstor Manuel Armendáriz, the president of the Human Rights Commission in the northern state of Chihuahua.

Searches after Sunday’s uprising and jailbreak turned up 10 “VIP” cells outfitted with televisions and other comforts. One even had a safe filled with cash. Authorities also found cocaine, methamphetamine, heroin, fentanyl and marijuana inside the prison, and they found 14 guns just outside.

But Armendáriz said supposed searches in 2021 didn’t find any of that.

Ten of the dead were prison guards who were attacked by gunmen who arrived early Sunday in armored vehicles and fired on the entrance and inside dormitories. The seven other dead were two policemen and five suspected attackers.

The director of the prison was fired Tuesday, and 191 inmates considered high-risk were transferred out of the overcrowded lockup.

The inmates who escaped have been identified as members of Los Mexicles gang. Los Mexicles’ leader, who was serving a sentence for murder and other crimes, was among the fugitives.

Los Mexicles has been one of Juarez’s main gangs for decades, and for many years was known to work with the Sinaloa cartel.

At the time of the jailbreak, prison No. 3 held 4,000 inmates, 23% more than it was designed to hold. As is common in Mexican prisons, people awaiting trial — 90% of inmates at the Ciudad Juarez facility — are mixed in with convicted criminals.

Despite the prison’s long history of problems, authorities prefer to look the other way, said Saskia Niño de Rivera, who leads the incarceration reform group Reinserta.

“Security is totally politicized, because the prisons don’t win you political points,” said Niño de Rivera.

The problem is particularly sensitive in Ciudad Juarez, where local gangs work for drug cartels and any violence inside prisons can quickly spill onto the streets.

That happened in August when a riot at the same prison spread outside in violence and left 11 people dead.

Niño de Rivera said Sunday’s riot “is a clear example of what is occurring in a large number of Mexican prisons, which are completely forgotten by the authorities and which are completely out of control.”

In 2016, 49 inmates were killed in a riot at the notorious Topo Chico prison in the northern border state of Nuevo Leon. Investigators found the prison to be full of weapons and other contraband. The state government closed it in 2019.

Mexico has a prison population of some 226,000 people, many held in overcrowded conditions in facilities without sufficient guards. The problem is fed by policies that allow, and in some cases require, suspects to be held for a wide variety of crimes for long periods before trial.