The TV presenter accused of commissioning murders to boost the ratings of his daily crime show was in prison yesterday, remanded on murder and drug trafficking charges after he had turned himself in.

Since escaping from a maximum-security prison in a laundry cart in 2001, Guzmán has overseen the rise of the Sinaloa cartel, which has raked in more than $20 billion in ill-begotten profit.

An armed gang freed more than 50 prisoners from a jail in Zacatecas in Mexico, including some two dozen members of the Zetas, a powerful drug-trafficking syndicate.