Sean Penn on back foot after shaking hands with Mexican drug kingpin

The target: Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the man considered to be the most wanted drug lord in the world.

In the Sinaloan state capital of Culiacan, where many revere Guzman as a folk hero, some were surprised to hear that he was looking to have a biopic made about his life.

Guzman faces extradition to the U.S. to face drug trafficking charges.

The Mexican government rejected US requests earlier to turn over Guzman. Mexico resisted, declaring it a matter of national sovereignty and brushing aside concerns that he’d already escaped from prison previously, in 2001.

Federal police chasing reports of stolen cars had no idea they were onto the world’s most wanted drug lord.

Mexican drug lord Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, right, is escorted by soldiers and marines to a waiting helicopter, at a federal hangar in Mexico City, Friday, Jan. 8, 2016. They were driven some of the way to the hideout by Guzman’s son, who the Hollywood star says was waved on by soldiers when they apparently recognized him. Chicago is calling him “Public Enemy No. 1”, the first time the city has used the moniker since it described crime boss Al Capone the same way at the height of the Prohibition fight against the sale of alcohol in the 1930s.

According to ABC News, “Primero Noticias” revealed they obtained surveillance footage that captured El Chapo and his lieutenant attempting to escape from a manhole.

The actor also shrugged off a suggestion that he was “taking hits” for agreeing to submit his article to Guzman prior to publication by Rolling Stone.

Mexican Actress Kate del Castillo accompanied Penn to the meeting at an undisclosed location.

The US rock magazine posted an Oct 2 picture showing Penn shaking Guzman’s hand during the meeting in an undisclosed jungle clearing in Mexico.

Finally discovering the hidden tunnel, some Marines tried to follow Guzman into the drains, but could not find him, a security official said. Some Americans denounced the interview.

The meeting sparked criticism in the United States, where Republican Senator Marco Rubio told ABC television that the interview was “grotesque”.

Guzman started his drug cartel in 1980 and presided over a powerful empire that supplied much of the marijuana, cocaine and heroin sold in the United States.

“I have a fleet of submarines, airplanes, trucks and boats”. But real reportage would have challenged Guzman’s excuses for his barbaric behavior, and included rebuttal from law enforcement.

A dozen prison officials have been arrested over the escape.

The actor says he has “nothing to hide” after the Mexican government has confirmed they are investigating the celebrity for his interaction with the criminal. Five of the hitmen were killed in the shootout. One troop comforts a wounded colleague, telling him “stay calm, buddy”. Six people were arrested at the scene.

On Oct 6, or four days after the meeting, Guzman was almost nabbed in a military raid in the state of Durango, but troops didn’t shoot because he was with two women and a girl.

Some in Washington have expressed concern that Guzman may make a third escape if he is left in the care of a Mexican prison system that has been found wanting twice before. He was not recaptured until 2014. “There are plans to cooperate with the U.S”. Kathleen Struck was the editor.

But the Sinaloa cartel leader could be extradited to the United States, where he faces seven drug-related indictments in various jurisdictions.