Plans to make biopic lead to 'El Chapo' arrest; authorities to question Sean Penn about secret interview

The world’s most wanted man, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, managed to elude authorities for seven months, but it’s his desire for fame that ironically clued special agents to his whereabouts.

In a bid to make a documentary about his life, the Sinaloa's cartel kingpin tasked his people to contact actors and producers. This led the authorities to his location at Los Mochis, the coastal city in northern Sinaloa, according to Mexico’s Attorney General Arely Gomez.

“The re-apprehension of this criminal and his accomplice is the result of a deep work of intelligence, investigation and coordination between the different institutions of security of the government,” Gomez said, as quoted by ABC News.

Guzman, 58, earned notoriety for being a drug trafficker in Europe, Australia and Asia and is known as a legendary outlaw. He is set to return to the maximum security prison in Altiplano, according to Gomez. Guzman escaped from jail in July by digging a tunnel into his shower stall.

After Friday’s shootout that ended to Guzman’s arrest, Mexican authorities are now eyeing to question actors Sean Penn and Kate del Castillo about Penn's secret meeting with Guzman in October, according to CNN.

On Saturday, the Rolling Stone published an article that Penn wrote, resulting from an interview with Guzman in a Mexican jungle. The drug lord, whom Penn described as “remarkably well-groomed” for a fugitive, boasted about his drug empire, the Sinaloa cartel.

Guzman claimed that he "supplies more heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana than anybody else in the world." He also told Penn that his drug trade earned him a fleet of submarines, airplanes, trucks and boats.

The Rolling Stone and Penn were not outright with the interview’s objective, but the actor cautioned about inaction to address the illness of drug addiction. He wrote, “Parents in Mexico and the U.S. will increasingly risk replacing that standard parting question to their teens off for a social evening – from "Where are you going tonight?" to "Where are you dying tonight?"

Notwithstanding the article’s intentions, the Obama administration panned the interview. "One thing I will tell you is that this braggadocious action about how much heroin he sends around the world, including the United States, is maddening,” White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said, according to a CNN report. "We see a heroin epidemic, an opioid addiction epidemic, in this country... But El Chapo's behind bars - that's where he should stay."