White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough has offered up his thoughts on the secret interview between Sean Penn and El Chapo in light of the drug lord’s capture.
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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 magazine.
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.
Penn’s secret interview with Guzman helped law enforcement authorities locate the fugitive’s whereabouts, a Mexican official told the New York Times over the weekend.
With Mexican authorities saying they’re committed to extraditing Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to the United States, it appears more likely than ever that American prosecutors will eventually get their hands on the drug lord. In it, Penn wrote of elaborate security precautions, but also said that as he flew to Mexico on Oct 2 for the meeting, “I see no spying eyes, but I assume they are there”.
Mexico plans to extradite Guzman to the United States, where he faces drug trafficking charges connected to his cartel, authorities said.
He was finally captured again in 2014, and escaped from a maximum security prison a year later using an elaborate tunnel system underneath the prison.
Guzman was arrested last week after a shoot-out in Los Mochis, six months after he escaped Mexico’s most secure prison.
Castillo, famous for her role as a drug trafficker in the telenovela La Reina del Sur, was first contacted by Guzmán’s lawyer in 2012 after she posted a tweet in which she criticized the Mexican government.
An interior ministry security official, who has visited the jail on various occasions, said the problem with housing kingpins such as El Chapo was that they could easily buy off all the prison staff.
The texts revealed that El Chapo was infatuated with the actress.
During his previous 17 month stint behind bars, Guzman asked his lawyers to begin the process of trade-marking his name with the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI), Mexican journalist Carlos Loret de Mola said.
Del Castillo took to Twitter to thank her supporters and wrote: “Not surprisingly many have chosen to make up items they think will make good stories and that aren’t truthful”.
M: “I’m beyond moved that you say you will care for me”. It was the second escape from a Mexican prison for the man responsible for untold carnage related to his billion-dollar illegal drug empire.
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Del Castillo, whose chat name was “Beauty”, answered: “I must confess that I feel protected for the first time”. (It’s selling for $128 on Amazon.) One is given to question Guzman’s wisdom in wearing a shirt created to “stand out” while he was the subject of the most intensive manhunt on the planet, but who are we to judge.
