“They got their man, so what do they need us for?” he said.
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He was right – and they had apparently been following del Castillo for months based on contacts with Guzman’s lawyers.
Mexican officials have said that while El Chapo was on the run, he called movie producers about a planned biopic.
But he noted, “meeting with a fugitive or criminal is not a crime, even if the law says we should report crimes, there is no punishment for not doing so”.
A government spokesman said on Tuesday that Mexico was not directly investigating Penn or del Castillo but rather the circumstances around the meeting.
Guzman was finally captured on Friday in a raid that left five suspects dead in Los Mochis, a coastal city in the northwestern state of Sinaloa, six months after his prison break. Stores in Mexico City on Wednesday sold pinatas resembling the pair, with “del Castillo” brandishing a pistol with “I love Chapo” written across it.
But for someone who grew up dirt-poor and barefoot in a remote mountain village, the glamour of the 43-year-old del Castillo’s stardom may have been irresistible.
Later messages between the two appear to have been retrieved from a Blackberry device that a lawyer bought for del Castillo on Guzman’s orders.
Another text from the drug lord reads: “How is the best and most intelligent woman in the world, who I admire a lot?” They said he then hustled into a tunnel that had been constructed to include ventilation and lighting.
The company behind the shirt, Barabas, quickly advertised the “celebrity link” on its website. Shirt.” In the past, polo shirts like one worn by drug trafficker Edgar Valdez Villarreal, “La Barbie, ” gained broad popularity in Mexico.
Guzman eventually met del Castillo face to face in an undisclosed jungle clearing in October, along with actor and director Sean Penn. The U.S. official did not say if the U.S. complied, and the Mexican official could not confirm a request had been made.
Both Penn and Castillo are facing further investigations into their interviews with Guzman, according to CNN, although Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez has said that the interview was “essential” in the process of recapturing the Mexican kingpin.
Barragan y Salvatierra said that meeting with Guzman for journalistic purposes would be a solid defense.
Samuel Gonzalez, a former federal prosecutor, said the actors would be protected because Penn presented the meeting as journalistic work.
July’s escape was Guzman’s second from a maximum security prison and it deeply embarrassed the government of President Enrique Pena Nieto.
An interior ministry security official, who has visited the jail on various occasions, said the problem with housing kingpins like “Chapo” was that they could easily buy off the entire prison staff.
Trying desperately to prevent yet another embarrassing escape.
Two government officials told AFP that the text messages leaked to Milenio were authentic.
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A newspaper shows a picture of drug lord Joaquin Guzman, aka “El Chapo”, shaking hands with U.S. actor Sean Penn (L), as seen at a newsstand in Mexico City, on January 10, 2016.
