Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman who was recaptured on Friday, January 8 was extradited to U.S.. He had escaped in July 2015 from the maximum security prison in Mexico and hides in a jungle. Ahead of his recapture, Hollywood actor Sean Penn interviewed him for Rolling Stone magazine, mediated by a Mexican actress Kate del Castillo.
El Chapo, the 61-year old kingpin was dubbed as the biggest drug lord of all time, famous for running a Sinaloa cartel. He was wanted by both Mexican and American authorities alike. According to CBS News, Mexico has started the extradition process of El Capo to U.S.
The arrest was his third one after he managed to escape from prison twice, both from the maximum security prison. His first escape was in 2001, after bribing a prison guard to open his prison cell and secretly transferred him through a laundry cart. Only after a long 13-year manhunt, Mexican marines finally captured Guzman in a hotel in Mazatlan, Sinaloa in 2014.
Six months later in July 2015, El Chapo escaped again through a 1.5 km (0.93 miles) tunnel from prison shower area to a construction site. In October 2015, Hollywood actor, Sean Penn interviewed Guzman in a remote jungle in Mexico. In the interview which recently published in Rolling Stone magazine, El Chapo admitted "I supply more heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana than anybody else in the world. I have a fleet of submarines, airplanes, trucks and boats."
Guzman also told Penn that he built the first subterranean passage beneath the border from Tijuana to San Diego to transport his products to United States in 1989. He sent his tunnel engineer in Germany for three months extensive training in order to build the tunnel. Later on, the same technique was used to dig tunnel in his 2014 prison escape.
Little that they know, the interview gave opportunity to Mexican authorities to track his hideout location in Sierra Madre mountain in western Mexico The Mexican Marine finally captured him after a heavy gun fight, killing five of Guzman's bodyguard and wounding one Marine.
Guzman gained his popularity among Mexican people when a Mexican popular actress, Kate del Castillo supported him publicly starting 2012. She believed that El Chapo can do more than corrupt Mexican government in helping Mexican people. As one of the most popular actress in Mexico, controversies about Kate del Castillo statements spread.
Kate told CNN about her support for Castillo as, "Someone like that, at least we know who he is, we know what he does, we know what his profession is. The others sometimes are worse criminals, and have numbed us, and hide everything from us."
Controversial popularity of El Chapo Guzman some narco-corrido, ballads about drug trafficking, to be written about him. The music genre from northern Mexico is often compared to gangsta rap style. The recent arrest might inspire another song to be written about Guzman.
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