Law enforcement officers had received a helping hand from an unusual source in their search for the crime lord – film star Sean Penn, who was allowed access to one of Guzman’s remote mountain hideouts in October to conduct an interview for Rolling Stone magazine.
Advertisement
Guzman was arrested Friday, six months after he escaped through a tunnel out of Mexico’s maximum-security Altiplano prison.
It’s unclear whether authorities were referring to Penn and Kate del Castillo, a Mexican actress.
“My holidays are over”, Guzman said when he was finally caught, Televisa reported.
“Good moment to remember what happens to real journalists who cover Mexican drug traffickers”, Baron wrote in a tweet.
“They got their man, so what do they need us for?” he said.
Guzman narrowly escaped under a blaze of bullets but the raid, in the northern state of Durango, was a major breakthrough in the hunt. Mexican marines pursued the wily kingpin through storm drains before intercepting his getaway in a hijacked auto.
“It culminated with the delivery of 2,000 kilos of cocaine to Spanish authorities and the arrest of El Chapo’s leadership team and eventually his indictment”, he said.
Matt Damon, a Globe victor for actor in a comedy or musical, said backstage that Penn’s adventure was nothing new.
Penn unsuccessfully tried to set up a formal follow-up interview.
A senior Obama administration official told television news shows yesterday morning that Guzman’s boasting about his heroin empire in the interview was “maddening”.
We’re going to start with a story that continues to get more freaky by the day.
The Mexican newspaper El Universal published 10 photographs Monday that appeared to show Penn being monitored as he arrived in Mexico.
A second federal official said it was unclear whether Penn and del Castillo, who brokered the meeting, had violated any Mexican law. The announcement that it would seek to extradite the head of the Sinaloa cartel came Saturday from the Mexican attorney general’s office.
“Another important aspect that helped locate him was discovering Guzman’s intention to have a biographical film made”. Mexican authorities said they captured Guzman partly because his representatives contacted filmmakers and actors about making his biopic.
Marines found two women hiding in the bathroom of the house, along with DVDs of La Reina Del Sur, a fictional series about a female drug boss starring del Castillo.
Penn, who wanted to write a magazine article about the imprisoned kingpin, met Del Castillo, who passed the message to Guzman.
In the meantime, Guzman was being held at the same prison from which he escaped through a tunnel in July. “So, hopefully this time the criteria for avoiding an escape prevails”.
Advertisement
But Payan and other experts agree…the Sinaloa cartel will continue to operate without Guzman, and the capture of the high profile leader of the cartel will not have a major impact in the cartel’s drug and human smuggling operations.
