Sean Penn interviewed El Chapo before drug lord's arrest

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El Chapo, as seen during a video interview while on the run after escaping from a maximum security prison. Gone is his famous mustache.

Image: Rolling Stone

While Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was once again locked up in the Altiplano maximum-security prison he escaped this summer on Saturday, Rolling Stone published a bombshell report: the only interview with the notorious drug lord outside of an interrogation room.
The interview, conducted over seven hours by actor Sean Penn in October and later followed up with more correspondence using burner phones, delves deep into El Chapo's past, filling out the bones of a story we already knew — that of a poor farm boy who rose to greatness as a drug king pin once worth $1 billion. We learn he started growing marijuana and poppies by 15, the inside story of his audacious prison break, which involved expert engineers and a motorbike, and how he wants to die. "I hope it's of natural causes," he said.