The Guardian

Movie star Sean Penn, drug lord El Chapo and a failed marine raid

The Hollywood actor almost fell into a police trap when he met with the fugitive Mexican over a film deal, reveals new book
Members of the marines hold drug lord Joaquín Guzmán, alias El Chapo, in Mexico City in 2014. He later escaped from prison and was recaptured in 2016. Photograph: Mario Guzman/EPA

He is one of Hollywood’s most acclaimed actors, at one time known as much for his hellraising, turbulent marriage and interest in humanitarian causes as for his films. Now it has emerged that Sean Penn’s taste for adventure – and a potential movie part – almost led him into a trap that had been set for the notorious Mexican drug smuggler and fugitive Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán.

The tale, recounted in a new book, El Jefe: The Stalking of, sheds new light on an international spying operation set up to apprehend the drug lord who was responsible for ordering as many as 200 murders, according to prosecutors.

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