Drug Lords Real and Fictional Are Plentiful in Pop Culture

He thought his story was movie material. After all drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the leader of Sinaloa cartel, had been captured twice and escaped, and that, along with his ruthlessness, made him a name known in pop culture. But it was those Hollywood dreams that helped Mexican marines track him down in Los Mochis, a seaside city, and capture him Friday.
Drug Lords Real and Fictional Are Plentiful in Pop Culture
Actor Al Pacino arrives at the "Scarface" Legacy Celebration Event in Los Angeles on Aug. 23, 2011. In the 1983 movie, he plays a Cuban immigrant who enters a life of crime and eventually, takes over a drug cartel and inevitably, spirals out of control. AP Photo/Matt Sayles
The Associated Press
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He thought his story was movie material. After all drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the leader of Sinaloa cartel, had been captured twice and escaped, and that, along with his ruthlessness, made him a name known in pop culture. But it was those Hollywood dreams that helped Mexican marines track him down in Los Mochis, a seaside city, and capture him Friday.

Guzman might yet become a Hollywood subject. The Hollywood Reporter reported last summer that director/producer Ridley Scott and Fox were teaming up to adapt the fictional book, “The Cartel,” into a movie.

Drug lords—both fictitious and real—have long captured attention as lead characters in movies and TV.