Mexico captures fugitive drug lord ‘El Chapo” Guzmán… again, says President Enrique Peña Nieto

“Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman, the world’s most wanted drug lord, was on Friday night recaptured following a last stand gun battle with Mexican security forces. Mexico’s President Enrique Pena Nieto said the fugitive cartel chief was taken alive and uninjured six months after he made an audacious escape from a maximum security prison.”

“He was planing to make a film of his life story. An ‘important thing allowing us to pinpoint his location was the discovery that Guzmán intended to make a biographical film and had already been in touch with actresses and producers,’ Arely Gómez, attorney-general, told reporters.

A biopic of the Sinaloa cartel boss, nicknamed ‘El Chapo’, or Shorty, would not lack for material: his life has been the stuff of criminal legend. There was his escape from jail in 2001, either hidden in a laundry cart or disguised as a policeman, depending on which account you believe. … Then there was his reputation for sweeping into restaurants with his entourage and then picking up the tab for the terrified diners.”

“Though his fortune, estimated at $1 billion, has come with a trail of blood, he does not consider himself a violent man. ‘Look, all I do is defend myself, nothing more,’ he told Mr. Penn. ‘But do I start trouble? Never.’ The seven hours Mr. Guzmán spent with Mr. Penn, and the follow-up interviews by phone and video—which began in October while he was on the run—marked another surreal turn in his long-running effort to evade the Mexican and American authorities. … The interviews were held in a jungle clearing atop a mountain at an undisclosed location in Mexico. Surrounded by more than 100 cartel troops, and wearing a silk shirt and pressed black jeans, Mr. Guzmán sat down to dinner with Mr. Penn and Kate del Castillo, a Mexican actress who once played a drug kingpin in the soap opera ‘La Reina del Sur,’ according to Rolling Stone. ”

“The 43-year-old Del Castillo had her most memorable role in 2011 playing a drug kingpin in ‘The Queen of the South,’ a TV series based on a book written by Spanish writer Arturo Perez-Reverte. … Del Castillo has long been fascinated with ‘El Chapo,’ to whom she wrote a public appeal in 2012, urging him to do good and saying, ‘Today I believe more in Chapo Guzman than in the governments that hide the truth from me.’

“Penn wrote that Del Castillo was first contacted by the drug kingpin’s lawyer in 2012 after she sent the public appeal, which included urging him to start ‘trafficking with love. … El Chapo’s representatives contacted her again after his arrest in February 2014, when ‘gringos were scrambling to tell his story,’ Penn wrote.’ … Penn described elaborate security measures—disposable phones and encrypted communications—that both he and del Castillo took to keep the meeting secret. But apparently, del Castillo’s contacts with Chapo’s lawyers weren’t as closely guarded—and were detected.”

“Interpol Mexico agents have executed two arrest warrants, formally launching extradition procedures. The move comes amid criticism over US actor Sean Penn’s interview of the notorious drug lord. Mexican authorities on Sunday formally launched the process to extradite drug trafficking kingpin Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman to the US after he was rearrested on Friday.”

“Notorious drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman apparently didn’t meet all of his goals before he was recently recaptured. He had hoped to spend some of his ill-gotten gains purchasing England’s powerhouse Chelsea Football Club, according to Mexican authorities. … But it’s highly unlikely Guzman could have passed the British football leagues’ ‘fit and proper person’ test required of potential buyers of football clubs.”

“Evidence recovered by Mexican police seems to suggest that El Chapo may have had a penis enhancement surgery at a hospital in Tijuana, Mexico. … The New York Times reported that the notorious drug lord had never even heard of Sean Penn. They say that the meeting was actually set up Castillo, a mutual acquaintance of both men.

“Leaked text messages supposedly show that Castillo and Chapo were flirting for months before his arrest. He offered to get her a light pink cell phone, ‘suitable for a woman,’ and even wanted her to meet his mother. What a romantic.”

“Mexican drug lord Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman has his prison food tasted by a dog each day before he eats it to prevent anyone poisoning him, an official said Wednesday. … ‘A K9 tastes the food first because we must care for his physical integrity in case someone wants to poison him,’ [Eduardo Guerrero, the head of Mexico’s penitentiary system] said, adding that the same thing is being done for other imprisoned drug barons.”

“The drug lord Joaquín ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán bankrolled the election of senior Mexico politicians and twice secretly entered the United States to visit relatives, according to his eldest daughter. Rosa Isela Guzmán Ortiz said that shortly after an interview with Hollywood star Sean Penn last year, her father dodged a massive manhunt with the complicity of corrupt Mexican officials and evaded US border controls to sneak into California—despite being one of the world’s most wanted fugitives.”

“Drug kingpin Joaquin ‘El Chapo’ Guzman appeared in a U.S. court on Friday after his surprise extradition from Mexico and pleaded not guilty to charges that he ran the world’s largest drug-trafficking organization during a decades-long criminal career. Guzman, 59, once one of the world's most wanted drug lords, was accompanied by two court-appointed lawyers during the appearance in federal court in Brooklyn. Best known by the nickname El Chapo, or ‘Shorty’ in Spanish, the diminutive Guzman was extradited on the eve of Donald Trump’s inauguration, raising speculation about the timing.”