In perhaps the strangest turn of events ever witnessed in the chase for a dangerous fugitive, it turns out that, months before his recapture, Mexican drug lord “El Chapo” was granted an interview by Rolling Stone. Stranger yet, it was conducted by Oscar-nominated actor Sean Penn. The magazine posted the shocking interview Saturday night, shamefully advertising it is as a must-see conversation.
As a reminder, Joaquin Guzman Loera is drug cartel boss who escaped a Mexican jail last summer. He operated one of the world's most powerful and deadly drug trafficking operations, according to CNN. So, Rolling Stone and Penn tracked him down – not, it seems, to return him to authorities, but to ask him riveting questions and generate a few pageviews.
The New York Times reported on the details of the interview:
The interviews were held in a jungle clearing atop a mountain at an undisclosed location in Mexico. Surrounded by more than 100 cartel troops, and wearing a silk shirt and pressed black jeans, Mr. Guzman sat down to dinner with Mr. Penn and Kate del Castillo, a Mexican actress who once played a drug kingpin in the soap opera “La Reina del Sur,” according to Rolling Stone.
Rolling Stone likes courting dangerous criminals. As we witnessed a few years ago, they had no problem rolling out the red carpet for murderer and terrorist Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
Mexican authorities are currently planning to extradite Guzman to the U.S.