Penn first met in person with El Chapo’s son under Chavista Cartel de los Soles protection in Venezuela’s Margarita Island.

El Chapo snuck out of the house during the Mexican Marines’ raid through a tunnel, bring us today’s Capt. Louis Renault moment:
‘El Chapo’ Nearly Foiled Capture With Another Tunnel. Mexican Marines took nearly 90 minutes to find the drug lord’s tunnel

Video published Monday by Mexican broadcaster Televisa revealed details of the secret tunnel used by Mr. Guzmán to slip away from marines as they stormed a house he was using in the coastal city of Los Mochis. He was arrested hours later trying to leave the city in a stolen car.

The tunnel was hidden behind a closet mirror, featured a secret switch hidden in the ceiling, and had electricity and wooden planks covering the walls, the images showed. Marines took nearly 90 minutes to find the tunnel and open the access, giving him a big head start.

Mr. Guzmán, the world’s most notorious drug lord and leader of the Sinaloa cartel, has a long history with tunnels. He is widely credited with pioneering the use of tunnels to ferry drugs across the U.S.-Mexico border, and used tunnels in recent years to elude capture as Mexico’s most-wanted criminal. He then famously used a mile-long tunnel to escape from prison last July.

Were he living, Dosto may have something to say on Chapo’s underground tendencies.

By now, shouldn’t Chapo (Shorty) be named El Topo (Mole)?

But I digress.

Here’s Televisa‘s coverage (in Spanish). Here’s the video from the Marines’ unit commander’s go-pro camera.

Anonymous Mexico released an embeddable version,

While the house was raided,

[El Chapo] fled through a secret door concealed by a mirror. He hid in a tunnel, until rainwater forced him out. An armed Guzman then stole a car, before finally being arrested.

As for Sean Penn’s October movie deal with El Chapo under the guise of an interview,

Penn agreed that El Chapo

would have the final edit of the resulting story.Penn also agreed not to alert authorities to the killer’s whereabouts

And it all comes down to this: Sean Penn Perpetuates Narco-Worship in a Blood-Stained Country

The main reason for the bloodshed in Mexico since the early part of 2000‘s comes from Guzman’s efforts to take control of the entire Northern Mexican border with the United States. While the expansion has been partly successful, the land-grab has resulted in thousands of deaths as rival cartels and former allies have at different times taken arms to protect their turf.

El Chapo’s attempt to take Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, led that massive drug trafficking corridor to become the Murder Capital of the world. The violence came when El Chapo’s forces clashed with the Vicente Carrillo Fuentes Organization, also known as the Juarez Cartel.

Even before Juarez, El Chapo and his then allied the Beltran Leyva cartel had unsuccessfully tried to take over the Mexican border city of Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas. That effort was met with a violent response from the Gulf Cartel and their enforcers Los Zetas. Gruesome executions and fierce clashes between convoys of gunmen became a regular sight.

Some maintain that, If Stupidity Were a Crime, Sean Penn Would Be the Fugitive. But see for yourself: you can read the interview (all nine thousand words) here. (Related: The Trouble With Sean Penn’s Chapo Interview)

But back to the underground,

I don’t agree with the stupidity part; Penn reportedly first met in person with El Chapo’s son under Chavista protection in Venezuela’s Ranchos de Chana resort at Margarita Island, according to Spanish journalist Emili Blasco (in Spanish), The meeting allegedly was sponsored by former chief of intelligence general Hugo Carvajal (a.k.a. El Pollo), who was indicted in the U.S. District Court accusing Carvajal of coordinating the transport of 5,600 kilos (6.17 tons) of cocaine from Venezuela to Mexico. Carvajal is a member of Venezuela’s Cartel de los Soles, which sells drugs to the Sinaloa Cartel.

As I mentioned in July 2014,

Spanish journalist Emili Blasco reports that Carvajal allegedly “was in charge of procuring the drugs from the FARC and controlled the distribution process in the U.S. and Europe, along with laundering the drug money through PDVSA,” the government-owned oil company. Carvajal also is under investigation for his role on the attacks to the Colombian consulate and the Jewish center in Caracas.

Blasco reported in yesterday’s ABC that Venezuela security sources conveyed the information regarding the presence of El Chapo’s children to U.S. authorities, and that the Mexican government also would have been told.

Blasco mentions that DEA sources claim that El Chapo had visited Venezuela in August/September last year.

Right now El Chapo is back at the prison where he escaped from last year; According to Mexican officials, El Chapo’s extradition process could take at least a year.

Linked to by Ed Morrissey. Thank you!