Drug Lord ‘El Chapo’ Guzmán Located Thanks to Interview With Sean Penn

The recapture of drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman took a surprise, Hollywood twist when a Mexican official said security forces located the world’s most-wanted trafficker thanks to a secret interview with U.S. actor Sean Penn.

A man reads an article about drug lord Joaquin Guzman, aka "El Chapo," showing a picture of him (R) and American actor Sean Penn on the website of Rolling Stone magazine, in Mexico City, on Jan. 10, 2016. Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty Images

MEXICO CITY—Mexican officials say Sean Penn’s contacts with drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán helped them track the fugitive down—even if he slipped away from an initial raid on the hideout where the Hollywood actor apparently met him.

Penn’s article on Guzmán was published late Saturday, Jan. 9, by Rolling Stone magazine, a day after Mexican marines captured the world’s most wanted kingpin in a raid on the city of Los Mochis near the Gulf of California.

Penn wrote of elaborate security precautions, but also said that as he flew to Mexico on Oct 2 for the meeting, “I see no spying eyes, but I assume they are there.”

He was apparently right.

A Mexican federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not permitted to comment on the issue, told The Associated Press the Penn interview led authorities to Guzmán in the area of Tamazula, a rural part of Durango state.

Investigators had been aided in locating Guzmán by documented contacts between his attorneys and 'actors and producers' she said were interested in making a film about him.