It looks as if famed drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman may have been done in by his own vanity. According to reports, it was Guzman’s attempts to make contact with film producers in hopes of producing a biopic on his own life that led to Mexican authorities being able to track him down and recapture him on Friday.
“He established communication with actors and producers, which has formed a new line of investigation,” said Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez in a press conference after Guzman’s arrest in the coastal city of Los Mochis.
This isn’t Guzman’s first attempts at immortalizing himself on film. Guzman is said to have first began exploring having his story told on the big screen after his 2014 prison escape. The New York Times reports that six months ago he instructed his team to contact actresses and producers for the would-be project. He even rubbed shoulders with Hollywood A-listers while on run having granted an interview to actor Sean Penn that was recently posted on Rolling Stone’s website.
The 61-year-old leader of the Sinaloa drug cartel was returned to Altiplano, the same maximum-security prison from which he escaped six months ago. His estimated net worth is $1 billion.
