There is grand speculation that actor Sean Penn might ultimately have something to do with the latest arrest of our favourite Mexican drug lord, Joaquin Guzman – otherwise known as El Chapo.

When El Chapo escaped from prison last year via a maze of underground tunnels, scooters and holes, despite his billions of dollars and endless supply of resources at his disposal, the fugitive chose to return home.

The drugpin felt safe in Sinaloa, Mexico and had paid off local officials and military commanders to tip him off if anyone came looking for him. Even residents admired him and protected him as one of his own.

He could have gone to Argentina, to Europe. He was where he felt safe. Where he felt untouchable.

Except that he wasn’t.

However, a source in the office of Mexican Atty. Gen. Arely Gomez said it was Penn and Del Castillo to whom she was referring when she said Saturday that Guzman’s communications with “actors and producers” had “formed a new line of investigation” into Guzman’s whereabouts.

She said authorities were able to track the drug lord’s meetings with lawyers and other associates and identify his whereabouts in October — apparently close to the time that he met with Penn and Del Castillo in a mountainous jungle redoubt.

Gomez said the raid nearly resulted in Guzman’s arrest, but troops, seeing him accompanied by two women and a child, decided not to engage.

But last week when neighbours noticed the movement of high-caliber, military-style weapons and people they described as suspicious, that was Guzman’s undoing. While some sources state that is wasn’t Penn’s involvement with Guzman that led to his arrest, others are saying otherwise.

The meeting with Penn in October occurred in the mountainous region of Sinaloa state where there was no cellphone coverage, so they weren’t tracking him there. But the Mexican marines knew he was up there and put a saturation operation in effect which restricted his room to maneuver and hide.

Peña Nieto was desperate to regain credibility that he had lost not only because [Guzman] escaped, but the disappearance of the 43 students kidnapped and probably killed in Guerrero state had gone unsolved.

However, following Penn’s meeting, Guzman’s habit of moving every couple of days became much riskier. Then, when it came down to the actual capture, Guzman was pursued along the highway by authorities after escaping his house. Then, after an eight-minute gunfight that led to the killing of five of his bodyguards, El Chapo was captured.

Check out Sean Penn’s interview with the drug lord here.

[source: latimes]