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Crime

Sean Penn met 'El Chapo' before capture

January 10, 2016

Penn has detailed his meetings with the Mexican drug lord, which aided his capture. "El Chapo" boasts about his humble beginnings trafficking drugs and how he sells more narcotics than "anybody else in the world."

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Penn said he told "El Chapo" he wasn't receiving payment for the story
Image: Getty Images/P. Le Segretain

US magazine Rolling Stone published an article on Saturday night in which US actor Sean Penn describes how he met with Mexican gang lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who was rearrested on Friday by Mexican authorities.

"I supply more heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana than anybody else in the world. I have a fleet of submarines, airplanes, trucks and boats," Guzman said, according to Penn.

In series of interactions, Penn asks the drug lord how he became involved in drug trafficking.

"Where I come from…there are no job opportunities," Guzman tells a camera after being asked the question by a cameraman recording the drug lord's responses.

"The only way to have money to buy food, to survive, is to grow poppy, marijuana…to cultivate it and to sell it. That is what I can tell you," Guzman adds.

The latest revelation comes after Guzman was caught by authorities after escaping a maximum-security prison in July.

The 58-year-old drug lord was captured by Mexican marines on Friday at the end of a raid in the town of Los Mochis, in Sinaloa state, which left five suspects dead.

As boss of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel, Guzman - who has twice escaped jail in Mexico - is wanted by US authorities on a number of criminal charges. His powerful Sinaloa Cartel has smuggled billions of dollars worth of drugs into the US.

Intention to make a biopic

Mexican authorities on Saturday local time said Penn's interactions with "El Chapo" aided them in his capture.

Part of the reason authorities were able to track Guzman down was his desire to film a biopic about himself, Attorney General Arely Gomez said at a ceremony where the prisoner was shown off to the media and frog-marched to a helicopter on Friday.

Gomez said an "important aspect that allowed us to locate him was that we discovered Guzman's intention to make a biographical film, for which he established contact with actresses and producers."

"The follow-up work allowed us to document meetings between attorneys of the now-detainee and these people," she said.

The final operation came at the end of six months of investigation by Mexican authorities, who had previously managed to locate Guzman in the Mexican state of Durango in October. Officers decided not to shoot at the time because he was with two women and a child, said Gomez.

Guzman was said to have moved to Los Mochis in December, with his house under surveillance for about a month before authorities could determine whether he was inside.

ls,rc/ (Reuters, AP, AFP, dpa)