But that, authorities said, was where they captured Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman over the weekend.
His nickname, which means "Shorty," belies the tall and near-mythic status Guzman achieved in recent years for his ability to elude capture by using bribes, safe houses and an army of cartel helpers.
The early morning operation in the Mexican Pacific resort town of Mazatlan marked a dramatic twist in a case that has long captivated the country and frustrated investigators on both sides of the U.S.-Mexico border.
Authorities had been closing in on the notorious Sinaloa cartel leader for months before Mexican marines swooped in Saturday, Mexican Attorney General Jesus Murillo Karam told reporters.
Earlier police operations yielded a trove of intelligence, including cell phone and other data, a U.S. law enforcement official said. That helped Mexican authorities and U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents hunting Guzman gain confidence in recent weeks that they could arrest him.
A key discovery earlier this month marked a turning point in the investigation: seven houses in the Mexican city of Culiacan, connected by secret tunnels that also tied in with the city's sewage system.
Investigators almost caught him then, Murillo said, but reinforced steel doors made it too tough for them to enter the compound quickly.
"It made it so that in the minutes we took to open them, he escaped in the tunnels," Murillo said. "But the investigation was so thorough that we continued."
Before Guzman's capture, Mexican federal forces made several significant arrests of Sinaloa cartel associates, including two people authorities said were suspected of providing security for top leaders of the cartel.
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