By The infamous drug lord Joaquin Guzman, known as “El Chapo,” may be good at escaping prisons, but no one escapes the bad decisions made when it comes to a crush.
El Chapo was captured on Jan. 8 for what may be the last time, and the reason is as ridiculous as it is scandalous.
With a mile-long rap sheet that could easily belong to a video game character, El Chapo was brought down and imprisoned again by his need to impress a woman.
I can’t say I blame the guy.
El Chapo’s main mistakes that led to his capture this time were simple: flirtatious text messages to actress Kate del Castillo, being influenced by the idea of glamorous Hollywood connections and getting too comfortable in his setting.
Someone as famous as him certainly got into the drug business for the same perks that come with being a Hollywood star. The difference here is that being a drug lord will never reach the height of fame without equal risks
It’s so ironic it almost hurts until you remember who he actually is. But in the grand scheme of things, notoriety doesn’t matter.
It turns out anyone, El Chapo included, can make questionable and poorly thought out choices over a nice pair of eyes and a tempting smile.
The text messages between El Chapo and del Castillo, published by CNN, are humorously simple with an innocent quality to them that you don’t expect to see from anyone over the age of 18.
It’s hard to believe that this man with so much world experience, who escaped prison through a tunnel on a motorcycle, loses track of priorities while flirting with his crush, like we all do.
El Chapo is probably the most notorious drug lord of our time. He escaped prison twice, has hundreds of deaths on his and his associates’ hands and is responsible for immeasurable amounts of drug smuggling and corruption.
The bragging he does in his interview with actor Sean Penn, claiming he had supplied “more heroin, methamphetamines, cocaine, and marijuana than anybody else in the world,” according to the New York Daily News, paints a clear picture that El Chapo thought he was untouchable after a few wins.
In essence, El Chapo has just learned you can’t have your drug-infused cake and eat it too.
Penn said in a CBS interview on Jan. 15 that the point of his own interview was to highlight the ineffective methods the government uses in the war on drugs, specifically how going after one or two major cartels doesn’t make a dent in lowering drug use. He claims that his meeting and interview with Guzman had nothing to do with his capture.
While this may be true, it certainly didn’t help keep El Chapo concealed, nor did Penn succeed in getting his point across to readers, or more importantly the government, at all.
Penn clearly didn’t stop to think how this would affect Guzman.
He knew this was a wanted man and he knew the amount of effort Mexico had put forward in capturing and keeping him.
Mexican officials must be embarrassed beyond measure that a Hollywood actor not only found El Chapo first, but had the audacity to go over their heads and publish a detailed interview with him in one of America’s most popular magazines.
That’s a slap in the face to Mexico, and Penn won’t be the one paying for it.
El Chapo is once again in custody, but with the way he’s weaseled his way out before, there are no bets on how long he’ll stay there.
