Neighbor Claims Tip, Not Penn Interview, Led to Capture of Fugitive El Chapo Chris Kraul - The Los Angeles Times
go to original January 11, 2016

Mexican authorities wish to speak to actors Sean Penn and Kate del Castillo about a meeting they had with notorious drug lord El Chapo while he was on the run. (Euronews)

The tip leading to last week’s capture of fugitive drug lord Joaquin Guzman came from a neighbor reporting suspicious activity at the house where he was hiding in Mexico, a former senior U.S. drug official said Sunday.

While questions have been raised about whether electronic contacts between Guzman and actors Sean Penn and Kate del Castillo could have led police to his hideout, it was a simple tip-off that led to Friday’s arrest, according to Mike Vigil, a high-level Drug Enforcement Administration official in Mexico for 13 years who has been in contact with Mexican authorities conducting the investigation.

Neighbors had noticed the movement of high-caliber, military-style weapons and people they described as suspicious traveling in two armored cars in a lower-middle-class neighborhood in the town of Los Mochis, said Vigil, who was the DEA’s chief of international operations before retiring.

Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez confirmed Saturday that it was Penn and del Castillo to whom she was referring when she said earlier that Guzman’s communications with “actors and producers” had “formed a new line of investigation” before Guzman’s capture.

Read the rest at The Eagle

Related: Mexican Navy Ministry Says El Chapo Arrest 'Purely Coincidental' (teleSUR)

Related: 'El Chapo' Could Have Fled to Another Continent, But He Chose to Go Home (The Los Angeles Times)

Related: Mexican Drug Lord 'Chapo' Guzman's Hometown Mourns His Downfall (Reuters)

Related: Coming to America: Why the El Chapo Extradition Could Take Years (USA Today)

Key dates in the various pursuits, captures and escapes of Sinaloa cartel boss Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman: (Associated Press)

• June 10, 1993: Guzman's first capture, in Guatemala, announced by Mexican authorities.

• 1995: Convicted and sentenced to 20 years in prison.

• Jan. 19, 2001: Escapes from one of Mexico's two top-security prisons, in Jalisco state, allegedly in a laundry cart.

• 2012: Nearly captured by Mexican federal police at a coastal mansion in Los Cabos, a day after U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton met with dozens of other foreign ministers in the same resort town.

• Feb. 22, 2014: Captured by Mexican marines at a condo in Mazatlan after he had escaped capture by fleeing through tunnels in Culiacan, the Sinaloa state capital.

• July 11, 2015: Escapes from country's Antiplano top-security prison, in Mexico State, using mile-long (1.5 kilometer) tunnel dug from site outside prison compound.

• Jan. 8, 2016: Captured by Mexican marines during raid in Los Mochis, a seaside city in Sinaloa. Sent back to same prison he escaped from.

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