Mexico Is Handing Out 100,000 Wanted Leaflets for Escaped Drug Lord ‘El Chapo’

Mexico's government is printing and handing out 100,000 leaflets with three photos of Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's face to motorists in 21 states and the Federal District amid high road travel for summer vacation.

The "wanted" leaflets offer a 60 million pesos reward, or $3.8 million, for information leading to Guzman's capture. They also show Guzman's birthdate as April 4, 1957, although the US government says he was born in 1954.

The measure is part of what the government calls a manhunt to find the figurehead of the Sinaloa cartel in case he is still in the country. Guzman escaped from the Altiplano maximum-security prison six days ago through a tunnel dug in his shower stall.

"We're doing everything necessary without regard for the complexity of the challenge so that justice and the law will prevail," Mexican interior minister Miguel Osorio Chong said on Thursday night.

Authorities said they would be handing out the leaflets asking for help in Chapo's arrest in most of the southern and central states of Mexico, including the drug lord's home state of Sinaloa, as well as Jalisco, Michoacan, and State of Mexico, all entities where drug trafficking and drug-related violence are high.

In other developments, at least 18 minutes passed before anyone was alerted to Guzman's escape on July 11, two Mexican lawmakers said on Thursday. The lawmakers told the Associated Press that Monte Alejandro Rubido, the national security commissioner, admitted that 18 minutes passed before anyone was alerted, giving Chapo a significant head-start to make it down a one-mile tunnel to an escape house.

The National Security Commission did not immediately respond to questions about the time.

Mexico's government also said this week it sent reinforcements to the country's southern border. Guzman's Sinaloa cartel is believed to have a strong presence in Central America, including Guatemala and Honduras, for the organization's trafficking operations to the United States and Europe.

Related: In Photos: Take a Tour of the Tunnel 'Chapo' Guzman Used to Escape in Mexico

The Associated Press Contributed to this report.