But despite the end of his freedom, a circus was just beginning.
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Penn wrote in a Rolling Stone article published Saturday that he had received a “credible tip” that the US Drug Enforcement Administration “had indeed become aware of our journey to Mexico”. In the article, Guzman is quoted as telling Penn that he supplies “more heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana than anybody else in the world”.
“All they are good for is spending their dad’s money”, Vigil said, repeating what Mexican officials have told him. Such Hollywood theatrics added another twist to the surreal life of the two-time prison escapee.
Mexican armed forces launched a series of raids deep in the Sierra Madre in mid-October, firing into villages, swooping in with helicopters and moving in troops to at least 12 villages in the remote borderlands of Sinaloa and Durango, hoping to the kingpin, widely known as “El Chapo”, who had been on the run since his escape from a maximum-security prison last summer.
Guzman escaped from the Altiplano prison near Mexico City July 11, launching an active manhunt.
“El Chapo” faces drug trafficking charges in the US connected to his Sinaloa drug cartel.
Guzman is wanted in half a dozen USA states. Mexican authorities had said they captured Guzman partly because his representatives contacted filmmakers and actors about making his biopic.
Guzman was recaptured Friday, six months after breaking out of a Mexican prison. “I think that he’s going to be brought to the United States”.
Before the interview came to light, two USA law enforcement officials had said the tracking of cell phones and electronic exchanges of people close to Guzman led to his recapture.
A judge granted Guzman a temporary injunction against extradition the day of his arrest and a court now has to rule on its validity. The Foreign Ministry has the final say on whether the extradition proceeds. Del Castillo has not commented. The world’s most-wanted drug lord…
“Pena Nieto was desperate to regain credibility that he had lost not only because (Guzman) escaped, but the disappearance of the 43 students kidnapped and probably killed in Guerrero state had gone unsolved”, Vigil said.
But the timing of the interview coincides with reported sightings and near-misses.
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.
Penn and del Castillo have not said a word about the interview.
“No, you’re reading hits”, he said.
Five of El Chapo’s associates died in the shootout.
A Mexican federal official told AFP on Sunday that the attorney general’s office wants to question Penn and Del Castillo about their meeting with Guzman.
Penn was unreachable for a few days, then later contacted him and said the interview had happened.
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“I’ve got nothin’ to hide”, he wrote. The story includes a disclosure about the unusual arrangement. “There is nothing we can add anymore”.
