Woman caught trying to sneak partner out of Mexican jail...in a suitcase.

He’s been dubbed the “narco-contortionist” and he’s going to have lots of time to practise his gymnastics in the next few years.

A Mexican prisoner was caught as he tried to escape in a suitcase after a conjugal visit from his fiancée.

Juan Ramirez Tijerina was found curled up in the foetal position inside the wheeled suitcase that the woman was pulling as she left the Chetumal jail.

A police spokesman in the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo said staff at the prison noticed that the woman seemed nervous and was pulling a black wheeled suitcase that looked suspiciously bulky.

Gerardo Campos said prison guards checked the bag of 19-year-old Maria del Mar Arjona and found Tijerina, who is serving a 20-year sentence for illegal weapons possession, curled up inside.

Ms Arjona was arrested and her boyfriend returned to his prison cell.

Tijerina was arrested by Mexican troops in 2007 while unloading a plane carrying drugs. Officials say that he belongs to the Sinaloa cartel, one of Mexico’s most powerful drug-running cartels.

His escape attempt was not the most far-fetched in recent Mexican history, however. Another Mexican, 42-year-old Enrique Aquilar Canchola, was captured trying to sneak across the border into California four years ago disguised as a car seat.