Share

Mexico says Sean Penn meeting was ‘essential’ to finding kingpin Chapo

The full video is nearly an hour long, but only snippets of it have been broadcast.

Advertisement

“We noticed on Saturday night”, he said.

The drug lord whose Sinaloa cartel is responsible for a quarter of the drugs in the USA was re-captured on Friday after he had escaped one of Mexico’s highest security prisons. It also created friction with Washington, which had sought his extradition to the United States. The marines were delayed in their search as it took them some time to locate the secret door in Guzman’s room on the first floor.

For global audiences, especially in the United States, Guzman’s interview with Penn turned the story of his capture into yet another celebrity scandal.

USA investigators will also examine Penn’s interactions with Guzman, two U.S. government sources said, but it was unclear if prosecutors would try to force the actor to turn over information about the interview. He left the mountain.

“Someone like that, at least we know who he is, we know what he does, we know what his profession is”.

Still, an Afghan official said, “some good progress” was made during what turned out to be a marathon session.

Officials defended the decision to put him back in the same prison, saying security was beefed up to avoid another escape. El Chapo apprehended following shootout in home state of SinaloaFive people died in gun battle at the home located in the seaside city of Guzman’s home state of Sinaloa.

During the operation, code named Tlatelolco as it was supposed to occur on the October 2 anniversary of a famous 1968 Mexico City massacre, one of the marines had Guzman in his sites, but chose not to pull the trigger as Chapo had a young girl in his arms, Loret de Mola said.

The 58-year-old is now being held at Altiplano Prison in central Mexico and he is expected to be extradited to the states to face multiple drugs charges. “The only way was by saturating the area where he was”.

The meeting was so secret, Penn said, that he and del Castillo were told to leave any electronics behind before boarding an airplane supposedly with a device that jams radar.

The other factor that led Guzman to Los Mochis was that he was “really very interested in meeting the actress again”, the official said.

“Each and every each one of the flaws have been fixed”, an official said.

“The movie was secondary”.

He got in touch with Del Castillo and she, through some mutual acquaintances, involved Penn. In the article and interview, Penn describes the complicated measures he took to meet the legendary drug lord. Intelligence indicated that Guzman’s wife, Emma Coronel, had arrived with their twin daughters to celebrate the Feast of the Three Kings, a major Christmas-season holiday for Mexican children. Holidays and birthdays are the best times to catch suspects.

But a lawyer representing the family wouldn’t take no for an answer. Guzman was captured on 8 January.

Chicago, which in 2013 dubbed Guzman its first Public Enemy No. 1 since Al Capone, has a sweeping 2009 indictment against him, including several counts of conspiring to smuggle and distribute drugs, as well as money laundering charges. He was cautious and humble, addressing authorities in the most formal manner of speech.

Advertisement

“I’ve got nothin’ to hide”, he wrote. Guzman and another man escaped the raid. In the article, Penn said Guzman requested no changes.

'El Chapo' interview released days after re-capture