132 Mexican inmates escaped from a prison located near the Texas border, the BBC reports.
Homero Ramos, attorney general of the state of Coahuila where the prison is located, confirmed on Mexican TV that the prisoners slipped out through a tunnel about 9.5 feet in width to the opposite side of the prison’s fence. The tunnel led to a carpentry workshop, and was about 23 feet long.
A massive manhunt is ongoing, with the Coahuila state government offering 200,000 pesos ($15,600) for information leading to individual arrests of the fugitives.
In addition, U.S. agents are on the lookout for possible border crossings to nearby Eagle Pass, Texas.
The prison director and two prison employees are being held for further investigation, but the BBC’s Central America correspondent Will Grant says it’s unlikely that president-elect Pena Nieto will make prison reform one of his top policy initiatives when he takes office in December.