SEATTLE - Back in 2015, two-time Academy Award winner Sean Penn caught the attention of the public eye not due to his role as Jim Terrier in the movie "The Gunman," but instead for meeting and interviewing with one of the world's most-wanted men at that time in the mountainous terrains of Mexico's "Golden Triangle."
During Joe Rogan's latest podcast episode, actor Josh Brolin and Rogan rekindled the fire about Penn's controversial meeting with Sinaloa Cartel co-founder Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán. As well as talking about the dangers that Penn was exposed to for meeting with such a high-profile fugitive, Brolin touched on a couple of the reasons of why the Mystic River star could have felt inclined to risk his life and travel to Mexico in order to personally meet with the drug lord.
According to Brolin, the two-time Academy Award winning actor's motives could be as simple as Penn's need to experience "intense emotions" and to break apart from his routine as a Hollywood superstar.
"I think he got one of those feelings in which you say 'You know what, things are getting boring'," Brolin said. "The weather is too nice here...lets do something big, something that will have people talking for at least a year," he added.
After Brolin's comments, Rogan added that meeting with Penn was one of the reasons that led to "El Chapo" being recaptured just a few months later.
In fact, three months later after "El Chapo" Guzmán hosted Penn at one of his Sinaloa ranches, the drug lord was recaptured near the city of Los Mochis, in northern Sinaloa, on Jan. 8 of 2016.
Sean Penn's Rolling Stone interview
According to different reports from the time and afterwards, "El Chapo" Guzmán maintained a cordial relationship with Mexican actress Kate del Castillo for years even while he was serving time at one of Mexico's maximum-security prisons.
When he managed to escape in 2015, Guzmán got in touch with the actress as he had wishes of making a movie based on his life, therefore inviting her to meet with him in Sinaloa.
Penn learned about the connection between del Castillo through a mutual acquaintance and asked if he could also travel to do an interview with "El Chapo."
The drug lord agreed, and the interview allegedly took place at one of his hideouts in the region known as the "Golden Triangle," a place that drug cartels have used for decades to grow marijuana and other opium poppies due to how hard it is for anyone to access as well as little to no presence of police or army personnel.
After a few months, the interview was published by Rolling Stone and the magazine was hit with waves upon waves of criticism for lending space and a voice to a well-known criminal.
Although Penn and del Castillo's reunion with one of the most-wanted men in the world did not yield any complications, Mexican authorities were able to track Guzmán's location thanks to mobile devices used during the interview.
By marking off potential hideouts in the region, authorities continued their intensive search for "El Chapo" in the months following the interview. No operations were successful until a joint manhunt called "Operation Black Swan" involving members of the Mexican Navy's Special Forces, the Army and federal police was able to locate and secure the arrest of "El Chapo" during the early hours of Jan. 6, 2016.
"If you bring your cell phone, you are basically bringing a tracking device to meet with one of the most notorious mobsters that exist today," Rogan added.
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