Mexican Government Giving Away El Chapo's Safe House in a Lottery

The government of Mexico is giving away the home where Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán famously escaped from marines in 2014 in a national lottery.

Tickets began selling for about $12 on Wednesday, a day before Mexico's Independence Day, the Associated Press and The Washington Post reported.

Mexico's Institute to Return Stolen Goods to the People, known as INDEP, is hailing the efforts to sell the property in the Culiacán neighborhood and has valued it at $183,000, according to the AP.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador showed the home during a June 16 press conference, and said the proceeds from the auction will benefit medicine, vaccines, scholarships and road construction across the country.

"It is about returning to the people, the town, what was confiscated … all that we can raffle off so that what is obtained is destined for the development of the nation and welfare of the people," the president said, per the Post.

During El Chapo's escape from the home via an underground tunnel seven years ago, the property was damaged by Mexican marines and has been abandoned ever since, according to the AP. In minor home improvement, the INDEP has since repainted the interior and exterior of the property, tiling over the space beneath the bathtub leading to the infamous underground tunnel where the drug lord fled.

INDEP officials, who asked to remain anonymous, told the outlet that the home isn't luxurious like El Chapo's other properties, noting that there was no pool or added amenities.

The special sale marks the second time the government has tried to auction the property, per AP. The outlet noted that the agency started bidding at roughly $130,000 last year, but didn't have any success.

El Chapo would be recaptured and escape several times over the years after the mission in 2014 at the Culiacán property.

In 2016, he was recaptured nearly seven months after his daring escape from a high-security prison outside Mexico City.

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The following year he was extradited to the United States, PEOPLE confirmed in 2017. The U.S. Justice Department charged the drug kingpin in six separate indictments, per a statement released at the time.

A federal judge in New York City sentenced El Chapo to life in prison in 2019, the New York Times reported. He is serving his sentence of life in prison, plus 30 years, in Colorado's Supermax prison, per CNN.