Argentina said on Monday that there was no truth to a tip that fugitive Mexican drug boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman was in hiding along its mountainous border with Chile, three days after a mystery call put the country's forces on high alert.
President Cristina Fernandez's government revealed on Friday it had received information that Guzman, the world's most wanted drug trafficker, had sought to cross the Chilean/Argentine frontier in the southern region of Patagonia.
"We tracked down the call, found who made it," Security Secretary Sergio Berni told radio station La Red. "After interrogating him, a judge found there was no truth to the caller's information."
Guzman escaped in July from a Mexican maximum security prison through a mile-long tunnel that surfaced inside his cell, in a major embarrassment for Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto.
A massive manhunt is on in Mexico for Guzman, head of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel which has smuggled billions of dollars’ worth of cocaine, marijuana and methamphetamines to the United States.
BUENOS AIRES —
