El Chapo's Sean Penn interview helped him get caught, Mexican officials claim
LatestSean Penn’s Rolling Stone interview with drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán helped Mexican authorities re-capture the notorious kingpin, Mexican officials claimed to the Associated Press on Saturday.
Chapo, who escaped from a maximum security prison through a massive tunnel in his jail cell in July, was nabbed by Mexican forces on Friday. A day later, Rolling Stone published Penn’s rambling account of a secret October meeting with the cartel leader.
Apparently, though, it was not as secret as the participants had intended, if the AP’s unnamed sources are to be believed.
The wire service reported that Penn led the government right to their quarry:
The official, who spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity, said it was the Penn interview that led authorities to Guzman in a rural part of Durango state in October. They aborted their raid at the time because he was with two women and child.
Fusion‘s sister network ABC News also reported that Penn and Kate Del Castillo, the Mexican actress who helped set up the interview with Chapo, are now under investigation. Whoops!
Watch Fusion’s documentaries on El Chapo: “Chasing El Chapo” and “Chapo, CEO of Crime.” Full disclosure: Penn mentions one of the documentaries to El Chapo himself during the Rolling Stone interview.