Mexico City, Oct 26 (EFE).– The United States is assisting with the manhunt for Sinaloa drug cartel leader Joaquin “El Chapo” (Shorty) Guzman, but U.S. law enforcement agents are not taking part in operations in Mexico, Government Secretary Miguel Angel Osorio Chong said Monday.

“Not one single person” from a U.S. security agency is participating in the manhunt in Mexico, but the United States is providing “intelligence,” Osorio Chong told Radio Formula.

“We’re working on his capture, but it would be irresponsible to say we’ve got him in one place or that we’re surrounding him,” the federal official said, adding that he would not provide a timeframe for capturing the drug lord.

Guzman escaped from the Altiplano I federal prison in central Mexico through a 1.5-kilometer (nearly one-mile) on July 11.

More than 30 people, including prison officials, have been arrested in connection with Guzman’s escape.

Investigators have determined that the drug lord was driven to San Juan del Rio, a city in Queretaro state, after escaping from the prison, Attorney General Arely Gomez said last week.

Guzman was flown from there to an unspecified hiding place.

If Guzman is captured, he cannot be extradited immediately to the United States because “the process is not finished,” Osorio Chong said.

Media reports say that the drug lord is hiding in his home state of Sinaloa, located in northwestern Mexico.

Guzman is the subject of a $5 million reward in the United States and has a price of 60 million pesos ($3.8 million) on his head in Mexico.

The drug lord had been held at the Altiplano I prison in Mexico state, which surrounds the Federal District and forms part of the Mexico City metropolitan area, since his arrest on Feb. 22, 2014.

Guzman faces drug, money laundering and criminal conspiracy charges in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California in San Diego.

Guzman, who was born in 1957, got his start in the drug business as a lieutenant of Miguel Angel Felix-Gallardo, the top leader of the Guadalajara cartel, in the 1980s.

Felix-Gallardo’s arrest and prosecution in 1989 led to the Guadalajara cartel being divided up and Guzman relocating to Culiacan, the capital of Sinaloa state, and founding the Sinaloa cartel.

Guzman was eventually captured in 1993 in Guatemala and sent back to Mexico, where he was convicted on bribery charges.

On Jan. 19, 2001, Guzman escaped from the Puente Grande penitentiary in the western state of Jalisco, pulling off the Hollywood-style jailbreak by hiding in a cart full of dirty laundry in front of guards. EFE