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Hollywood Actor Secretly Met With El Chapo Months Before His Arrest

Kaitlan Collins Contributor
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Sean Penn secretly met with Joaquin Guzman for an interview months ago, according to an article published by Rolling Stone Saturday night.

The 55-year-old actor went to Mexico in October to meet with “El Chapo,” the notorious drug lord who was on the run after he escaped from a Mexican prison in July.

Guzman is the head of “one of the world’s most prolific, violent and powerful drug cartels.”

Sean Penn El Chapo interview

Actor Sean Penn poses on the red carpet. (Photo: Valerie Macon/Getty Images)

Penn then conducted a seven-hour interview with him in a Mexican jungle while surrounded by cartel guards.

“I take no pride in keeping secrets that may be perceived as protecting criminals,” Penn wrote. “Not since Osama bin Laden has the pursuit of a fugitive so occupied the public imagination.”

“But unlike bin Laden, with the world’s most wanted drug lord, are we, the American public, not indeed complicit in what we demonize?”

“We are the consumers, and as such, we are complicit in every corruption of an institution’s ability to protect the quality of life for citizens of Mexico and the United States that comes from our insatiable appetite for illicit narcotics.”

Sean Penn interviewed El Chapo in October. (Photo: Getty Images)

(Photo: ALFREDO ESTRELLA/AFP/Getty Images)

Guzman was captured in a shootout that killed six of his associates, and Mexican law enforcement later said that it was Penn’s interview that helped lead authorities to Guzman.

Read Penn’s interview with Guzman in full here. (RELATED: Breaking News: El Chapo May Be Extradited To The US)

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