Joaquin 'El Chapo' Guzman, the infamous Sinaloa cartel boss, was captured on Friday after an almost seven-month manhunt — partly because he had dreams of becoming a movie star.
Over the course of his time on the lam, the drug kingpin contacted producers and prospective actors to star in a biopic about himself, according to the AFP.
"An important aspect that allowed us to locate him was that we discovered Guzman's intention to make a biographical film, for which he established contact with actresses and producers," Mexico's attorney general, Arely Gomez, told the AFP.
After a morning shootout with Mexican marines in Los Mochis, a city in his native Sinaloa state, Guzmán was arrested along with six others, the Associated Press reports.
Mexican forces first spotted the runaway kingpin in October in Durango state.They decided not to shoot because he was with two women and a child, Gomez said. After that, Guzman took a lower profile and limited his communication until he decided to move to Los Mochis in December.
One of the builders who helped construct Guzman’s mile-long escape tunnel also pointed investigators to the seaside town, and authorities surveyed the scene for a month as they planned their takedown operation, Gomez said.
Guzman will be held at Antiplano, the very same prison he escaped from in July, the Associated Press reports.
He will likely be extradited to the United States, Alejandro Hope, a Mexican intelligence official, told the AFP.
The U.S. attorney general, Loretta Lynch, released a statement calling Guzman's capture a "blow to the international drug-trafficking syndicate he is alleged to have led." Lynch said he will now "have to answer for his alleged crimes, which have resulted in significant violence, suffering and corruption on multiple continents."
