Guzman evaded authorities then, but was finally captured months later in Los Mochis.
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Extraditing Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman to the United States could take a year or more, Mexican authorities said on Monday, while the slippery drug lord waits in the prison he previously escaped from. But despite the end of his freedom, a circus was just beginning.
Whatever actor Sean Penn’s cloak-and-dagger interview with Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is – vanity project, movie treatment, friendly chat between celebrity and sociopath – treating it as real journalism would be a mistake.
The drug kingpin has been on the run since July when he broke out of a Mexican jail. Such Hollywood theatrics added another twist to the surreal life of the two-time prison escapee.
The house in Los Mochis, a northwestern seaside city in Guzman’s native Sinaloa state, bears the scars of Friday’s fierce pre-dawn gunfight, with dried blood on the floors. The Gangster Squad actor protected himself saying he isn’t hiding anything now that the Mexican government is questioning his involvement with the fugitive – get more details on Sean’s defense below!
In an article accompanying the photos, El Universal said Mexican agents were aware of and following del Castillo’s contacts with Guzman’s lawyers since at least June.
A government spokesman said on Tuesday that Mexico was not directly investigating Penn or del Castillo but rather the circumstances around the meeting.
Guzman is now being held at the same maximum-security prison from which he escaped in July with inside help, but Mexican authorities fear that he will buy his way out again with his vast wealth.
He faces numerous charges in the US, including drug trafficking, kidnapping and murder.
The President replied: “Well first of all I want to thank the Mexican government, because them capturing him, and as we go through an extradition process potentially, he is disabled”. The process could take months, and he would have the right to appeal.
The legal challenge is not a new tactic for Guzman’s lawyers. “I have a fleet of submarines, airplanes, trucks and boats”. There marines reportedly found 15 henchmen, but not El Chapo (more on that later), with machine guns and rocket launchers, fighting them off with grenades and gunfire as seen in the video.
But the timing of the interview coincides with reported sightings and near-misses.
Penn, in an article published by Rolling Stone magazine on Saturday, said del Castillo had been in contact with Guzman while he was in prison through letters after the kingpin’s attorney approached her.
“In the case of a meeting for an interview or to prepare a film, it is even less (prosecutable), because an actor could argue that even though they’re not journalists, they were doing journalistic work, and thus the law would protect them”.
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“A friend of mine named Sean Penn has been in the news”, Rose told the room of reporters.
