The Associated Press quotes a Mexican federal law enforcement official as saying it was El Chapo’s chat with Penn that made authorities aware of his whereabouts.
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The world’s most wanted drug lord was recaptured by Mexican marines Friday, six months…
About a half-dozen US attorneys’ offices throughout the country – among them Chicago, San Diego, New York City, New Hampshire, Miami and Texas – have secured indictments against Guzman in his absence over the years. Rolling Stone published Penn’s article the following day.
Members of the press are reflected on a broken mirror on January 11, 2016, while standing next to the door that leads to the tunnel entrance found inside the house where drug trafficker Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was hiding out before he was recaptured last Friday in Los Mochis, Mexico.
(Kiko Guerrero via AP/EL DEBATE).
Dramatic new video released Monday shows the violent raid on the hideout of the Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman that led to the arrest of Chicago’s “Public Enemy Number 1”. The drink makes a prominent appearance in the Rolling Stone piece, when Penn describes having takena swig out of an Honor bottle with del Castillo to calm their nerves during a bumpy flight towards their clandestine rendezvous with El Chapo.
One of the two small planes they boarded is pictured, apparently heading toward Guzman’s hideout in northwestern Mexico.
He was right – and they had apparently been following del Castillo for months based on contacts with Guzman’s lawyers.
The speed of the extradition process is nearly entirely up to the Mexican government, said David Weinstein, a former federal prosecutor who oversaw the narcotics division at the USA attorney’s office in Miami.
“I have a fleet of submarines, airplanes, trucks and boats”, he told Penn. The marine hit the weapon with a couple shots causing the gunman to toss it, the marine guide said in the Televisa interview.
His face beaming, and looking “remarkably well-groomed” for a prison escapee, Penn said, Guzman bragged about the intricate nature of his drug empire.
Del Castillo has not commented.
The newspaper says the intelligence file indicates that Mexican agents had been photographing Del Castillo since her first meeting with Guzman’s lawyers in the city of Guadalajara, on June 16.
Guzman was placed in cell number 20 of a section reserved for Mexico’s most notorious criminals, people like drug capo Edgar “La Barbie” Valdez, who was extradited to the United States a year ago.
Mexican officials had previously said they were willing to extradite Guzman, but cautioned that the extradition process might take a while.
Drug violence surged in the coastal resort in the previous year, making Acapulco the second most deadly city in Mexico after Juarez.
However, Jordan said he was surprised that El Chapo was arrested in Mexico, telling the press, “I never thought that the PRI were going to arrest “Chapo” Guzman because they got a lot of money to Peña Nieto’s campaign, so I surprised when he was arrested back in Mazatlan”.
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Guzman’s powerful Sinaloa cartel smuggles multi-ton shipments of cocaine and marijuana as well as manufacturing and transporting methamphetamines and heroin, mostly to the U.S. He is wanted in several U.S. states and his July escape deeply embarrassed the government of President Enrique Pena Nieto and strained ties between the countries.
