El Chapo Make A Movie Of His Life

2024 Author: Steven Freeman | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 08:15

Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquín el Chapo Guzmán was very interested in the famous clandestine meeting he had with actress Kate del Castillo and actor Sean Penn in their hidden refuge in the mountains: a book and a film about his life.

This was revealed by his lawyer Jeffrey Lichtman in the trial of the Mexican kingpin that began this week in a federal court in Brooklyn, New York. in which the prosecution is expected to show the interview and the video of the narco with the actor.

"It is crucial evidence," Lichtman said in his opening statement Wednesday of Penn's interview with the drug dealer in Penn's Rolling Stone magazine, in which he is accused of drug trafficking.

"El Chapo liked popularity, being known," admitted the lawyer, who pointed out to the jury that the interest of his client in the meeting with Del Castillo and Penn was to become more known.

"You will see that it was an attempt by Mr. Guzmán to make a book and a film about him," added the lawyer.

That explanation is framed in the argument of El Chapo's defense that his client, in fact, was not the omnipotent drug lord that the prosecution paints, nor the true head of the Sinaloa cartel, but a "myth" encouraged by the authorities. to divert the attention of the real people in charge of the poster.

In particular, Lichtman has pointed to the septuagenarian Ismael el Mayo Zambada, who has never been captured despite being under a search warrant, as the true head of the Sinaloa cartel and the largest drug trafficker in Mexico.

"While El Chapo had to flee from justice, Mayo Zambada lived very calmly," added the lawyer, who accused the high authorities of the Mexican government of protecting Zambada in exchange for bribes.

Guzmán's well-known meeting with Penn and Del Castillo, who had an interest in a film production about the life of his compatriot, occurred in October 2015 after long negotiations between the actress and the boss, who at the time was one of the most wanted men in the world after escaping for the second time from a Mexican prison.

The interview with El Chapo was kept secret until Guzmán's arrest in January 2016, when Rolling Stone published it on his website along with several videos. Instantly there was a huge stir, which in the case of Del Castillo resulted in serious legal problems in his country.

The protagonist of La reina del sur was finally able to resolve her differences with the Mexican judicial authorities and ended up releasing a documentary, When I met El Chapo (Netflix), especially this episode. What was not spared was her relationship with Penn, whom she blamed for leaving her in the lurch when the scandal erupted.

The federal prosecution accuses Guzmán of leading a complex criminal organization based in Sinaloa that for three decades and through brutal methods - including thousands of murders - managed to enter the United States drug shipments valued at $ 14,000 million.

In total, he is charged with 17 charges for drug trafficking, criminal organization and bribery, of which if found guilty he could be sentenced to life in prison.