Son of Mexican drug lord busts out of prison

Sinaloa: The son of a founder of the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel broke out of a prison in northern Mexico on Thursday, local prison officials said.

Juan Jose Esparragoza -- son of the drug lord of the same -- escaped with four other inmates from a prison in Culiacan, the capital of the northwestern state of Sinaloa, deputy head of state public security Cristobal Castaneda told AFP.

Esparragoza`s father founded the powerful criminal syndicate along with Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman -- currently jailed in the United States -- and Ismael Zambada.

Government sources say they believe the younger Esparragoza was being groomed to lead the cartel after Guzman`s arrest and extradition.

When Esparragoza was captured in January, National Security Commissioner Renato Sales said he was suspected of managing the cartel`s finances and coordinating a distribution network.

Sales also said that Esparragoza was a "generator of violence" in Mexicali and Tijuana, two cities on the border with the US state of California.

Guzman, the cartel`s notorious leader, escaped from a Mexican prison in 2001, was re-arrested in 2014, then escaped a maximum security prison through a tunnel the following year. He was recaptured in January 2016 and extradited to the United States a year later.