Sean Penn’s daring dealings with ‘El Chapo’ draw U.S. scrutiny

Transcripts of more than a month of text messages between drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman and Mexican actress Kate del Castillo showed he was less interested in making a movie about his life than he was in flirting with the actress. “People are not being investigated”, Sanchez said.

But he noted, “meeting with a fugitive or criminal is not a crime, even if the law says we should report crimes, there is no punishment for not doing so”.

On Monday, Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez Gonzalez said in a radio interview that Guzman’s meeting and interview with Hollywood actor Sean Penn helped in his arrest.

A senior government official, who declined to be identified, said one reason Guzman left his redoubt in the Sierra Madre mountains of Sinaloa for Los Mochis was because he was desperate to set up another meeting with the Los Angeles-based actress.

Trying desperately to prevent yet another embarrassing escape.

In this Friday, Jan. 8, 2016 photo, Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman is made to face the press as he’s escorted to a helicopter in handcuffs by soldiers and marines at a federal hangar in Mexico City.

If U.S. authorities ultimately subpoena Penn or want him to testify against Guzman, it would be hard to force the actor to reveal facts beyond the published interview, since he could invoke “journalistic privilege”, which in some cases protects reporters from divulging information about their work, said lawyers with expertise in U.S. media law.

It came as text messages were released that suggested Guzman had been keen to meet Kate del Castillo, the Mexican actress, but had never heard of Penn.

Later messages between the two appear to have been retrieved from a Blackberry device that a lawyer bought for del Castillo on Guzman’s orders.

Chicago Tribune reported that it would be hard to charge Penn or del Castillo unless they aided Guzman while he was out hiding. Del Castillo’s sister, Verónica Del Castillo, had revealed that she would soon talk about the ordeal and at this time it is not known when she will do this.

The extradition of El Chapo to the United States is still expected to take at least a year.

“They try to be with family, and intelligence units take advantage of these contacts to find out where they are”, he said.

Univision announced on Tuesday the network is moving forward with plans to air a series on the life of recently recaptured Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman later this year.

Officials said Tuesday that Guzman’s “almost obsessive” desire to see Del Castillo again contributed to his recapture last Friday in Los Mochis, a seaside city in his northwestern home state of Sinaloa.