Guzman Ortiz-who runs a chain of carwashes, beauty salons and cafes in California-also defended her father against criminal accusations, saying he has been unfairly targeted by the Mexican government.
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She declined to explain how he was able to cross the heavily guarded border: “I asked him the same, believe me”, she tells The Guardian.
“My dad deposited the money in a bank account with a lawyer, and a while after, he came to see the house, his house.
The government is guilty”, Guzman Ortiz, who spoke with several Guardian reporters in consultation with her 58-year-old father, told the London daily.
In return, she said officials facilitated his escape from prison and efforts to avoid recapture, claiming that in one instance “a high-placed source in the secretariat of national defense tipped off the family” when security forces were planning to nab Guzman at his mother’s home in La Tuna, Sinaloa. Jackie Wasiluk, a spokeswoman for US Border Protection, told Agence France Presse that the agency “has no information that substantiates the claims in news reports”.
Mr Guzman escaped twice from maximum-security prisons.
She added that the family was considering releasing copies of the cheques, as well as names of officials and politicians who accepted his support.
El Chapo’s daughter accuses senior Mexican politicians of accepting donations from her father when they ran for office in exchange for turning a blind eye to his prison escapes.
The British newspaper says Guzman Ortiz made the claims in a series of interviews that she says were given in consultation with her father.
Mr Guzman was sent back to Altiplano following his January 8 recapture.
The small group included Guzman’s sister Bernarda, who said her brother was being punished for escaping.
“They are angry because he got out, but anybody, even an irrational animal, would seek their freedom”.
Through his lawyers, he has complained of being woken at night, being denied family visits and not having enough warm clothes for cold nights at the high-altitude facility. Mexico said it would not extradite Guzman until he had served his prison sentence in Mexico.
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El Chapo has asked his legal team to speed up the extradition process from Mexico to the United States due to the harsh conditions at Altiplano I, one of the drug lord’s attorneys said Wednesday.
