Sean Penn meeting pivotal in drug lord’s capture, official says

MEXICO CITY – Recaptured drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman’s secret interview with U.S. actor Sean Penn helped authorities locate his whereabouts, a Mexican law enforcement official said late Saturday.

The world’s most-wanted drug trafficker was arrested early Friday after a shootout in Los Mochis in his home state of Sinaloa, six months after he embarrassed the government of President Enrique Pena Nieto by escaping from Mexico’s most-secure prison. Five people were killed during the operation that led to the recapture of Guzman, who has twice escaped from prison.

Mexico Attorney General Arely Gomez had said Friday that Guzman’s contact with actors and producers for a possible biopic helped give law enforcement a new lead on tracking and capturing the world’s most notorious drug kingpin.

On Saturday, a Mexican official said it was the Penn interview that led authorities to Guzman in a rural part of Durango state in October. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not allowed to comment. Authorities aborted their raid at the time because he was with two women and a child. But they were able to track him to Los Mochis, where he was captured.

The interview between Guzman and Penn, purportedly held in late 2015 in a hideout in Mexico, appeared late Saturday on the website of Rolling Stone magazine.

In it, the actor describes the complicated security measures he took to meet the drug lord. The men discuss topics ranging from drug trafficking to the Middle East.

Asked whether he is responsible for the high level of drug addiction in the world, Guzman purportedly responds: “No, that is false, because the day I don’t exist, it’s not going to decrease in any way at all. Drug trafficking? That’s false.”

The magazine says the meeting was brokered by Mexican actress Kate del Castillo. Its website has a two-minute video it says is the first exclusive interview with Guzman. It is in Spanish and in it Guzman sits in front of a chain-link fence and speaks to a camera. He is wearing a print blue shirt and dark baseball cap, but his face is clearly visible. Accompanying the article is a picture of Penn shaking hands with Guzman.

Asked about who is to blame for drug trafficking, Guzman is quoted as saying: “If there was no consumption, there would be no sales. It is true that consumption, day after day, becomes bigger and bigger. So it sells and sells.”

Earlier Saturday, a federal law enforcement official said Mexico is willing to extradite Guzman to the United States, a sharp reversal from the official position after his last capture in 2014.

“Mexico is ready. There are plans to cooperate with the U.S.,” said the Mexican official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.

But he cautioned there could be a lengthy wait before U.S. prosecutors can get their hands on Guzman: “You have to go through the judicial process, and the defense has its elements too.”

Top officials in the party of Pena Nieto also floated the idea of extradition, which they had flatly ruled out before Guzman’s embarrassing escape from Mexico’s top maximum-security prison on July 11 – his second from a Mexican prison.

“He has a lot of outstanding debts to pay in Mexico, but if it’s necessary, he can pay them in other places,” said Manlio Fabio Beltrones, president of Pena Nieto’s Institutional Revolutionary Party.

But even if Mexican officials agree, Guzman’s attorney Juan Pablo Badillo told the Milenio newspaper that the defense already has filed six motions to challenge extradition requests.

“They can challenge the judge, challenge the probable cause, challenge the procedure,” said Juan Masini, former U.S. Department of Justice attache at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico. “That’s why it can take a long time. They won’t challenge everything at once … they can drip, drip, milk it that way.”

Guzman was apprehended after a shootout between gunmen and Mexican marines at a home in Los Mochis, a seaside city in Guzman’s home state of Sinaloa.

Following his capture, the head of the powerful Sinaloa Cartel was brought to Mexico City’s airport, frog-marched to a helicopter before news media, and flown back to the same prison he’d fled.