United States investigators will examine actor Sean Penn’s interactions with Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, two United States government sources have said, but it is unclear if prosecutors would try to force the actor to turn over information about his interview with the recaptured drug kingpin.
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Mexico’s attorney general on Monday said her office has an open line of investigation into Penn’s meeting with Guzman, saying their rendezvous – captured by Mexican surveillance – was an “essential” element in the drug lord’s arrest.
Pressed as to whether he should have let Guzman read the story in advance or had done enough to protect his source the actor remained silent.
Transcripts of more than a month of text messages between drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and Mexican actress Kate del Castillo showed he was less interested in making a movie about his life than he was in flirting with the actress.
The world’s most-wanted drug lord was captured for a third time, as Mexican marines staged heavily armed raids that caught Guzman six months after he escaped from a maximum-security prison.
The actor also shrugged off a suggestion that he was “taking hits” for agreeing to submit his article to Guzman prior to publication by Rolling Stone. However, he quickly revealed he had ulterior motives for his trip: Sean Penn.
Penn and del Castillo have not said a word about the interview. She reportedly set up the meeting between Penn and Guzman.
About 100 journalists have been murdered in Mexico in the last ten years, due to their work exposing the activities of the cartels and corruption.
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 various U.S. states and his July escape deeply embarrassed the government of President Enrique Pena Nieto and strained ties between the countries. As rains started to fill the drains, Guzman eventually emerged from a manhole near a gas station a mile (1.5 km) across town and stole a vehicle at gunpoint. Five were killed in the shootout, one of them falling from the roof down to a patio and another escaping outside before dying on the street, Televisa said.
Questions have swirled over what role, if any, Penn’s interview had in Guzman’s arrest early Friday.
Sales of the “Crazy Paisley”, a shirt Barabas says is “definitely one to wear on a night on the town”, which El Chapo is seen wearing in another just-released photo, have also jumped.
But they could face money-laundering charges if there was a transaction for a film made with “money from illegal sources”, legal expert Juan Velazquez told AFP.
It took the Marines 90 minutes to find the tunnel entrance, giving Guzman a crucial head start to flee.
In light of that, it is surprising that Guzman, who spent years evading capture, would have continued in such constant contact with the actress.
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While the government seeks to ship Guzman across the border, a military tank sits outside the Altiplano prison west of the capital and a cell’s floors were reinforced with metal rods to prevent another tunnel.
