Drug lord Guzman falls into the net because of his silver screen dream

A desire to make a biopic about his life led to the tracking down and capture of Mexican drug lord Joaquin Guzman, nicknamed the Shorty.

Joaquin Guzman is escorted onto a helicopter in Mexico City on January 8. Photo: AP.

Speaking at a press conference after the arrest, Mexican Attorney General Arely Gomez said Guzman's narcissism knew no bounds and he wanted to become even more famous by putting his life story on the big screen. This ultimately led to Guzman's arrest at a rundown house in Los Mochis, Sinaloa state, the Guardian reported.

"The key factor in determining the Dwarf's whereabouts was the discovery that he wanted to make a biopic," said Ms. Gomez.

In the minds of the Mexican people, Joaquin Guzman is an arrogant, notorious kingpin of a drug trafficking criminal empire on almost every continent.

Guzman made a shocking prison break last July, using a 1.5-kilometer-long tunnel located directly under the prison to escape. The thrill and daring of Guzman's escape story has prompted producers to start the process of producing a biopic, which will depict his journey from poverty to becoming a billionaire listed on Forbes' list of the world's richest people.

Attorney General Gomez said Guzman was so determined to produce the film that he attempted to contact producers and actors through intermediaries after his escape. That plan caught the attention of authorities and helped them learn that he had returned to his hideout in the Sierra Madre, a rugged and difficult-to-reach mountainous region in northern Sinaloa state that has been compared to the caves in Afghanistan's Tora Bora Mountains where Osama bin Laden once hid.

“His contact with actors and producers opens up new avenues of investigation,” Gomez said. Authorities have monitored Guzman’s lawyers and their meetings with people who might be involved in the film. Gomez did not name any of the actors.

According to her, Mexican security forces last October identified Guzman's hiding place in Durango state but decided not to open fire to capture him because he was with two women and a child at the time.

According to CNN, when Guzman was alone, security forces chased him to a cliff and forced him to fall off. However, Guzman's henchmen quickly approached and took him into the jungle to escape. According to a Mexican official, Guzman may have broken his leg and suffered facial injuries after the fall.

From there, he kept a low profile until moving to Los Mochis last month. Thanks to information about Guzman's movie dreams and a tip from one of his tunnel crew, security forces finally tracked him down.

However, not everyone believed when Mexican authorities said Guzman was hatching big plans for a movie about his life.

“Why would a drug lord make a splash when he’s on the run? It’s absurd,” said Rodolfo Soriano Nunez, a sociologist in Mexico City. The Mexican government “doesn’t seem to realize how hard it is to believe the story.”

Some of the weapons seized during the raid that captured Joaquin Guzman. Photo: Secretaria De Marina.

Movie about Guzman is coming soon

Films about drug trafficking and the war on drugs in Mexico have been shown in many Mexican cinemas in recent years and have achieved many positive results with positive reviews from critics and the public.

These films were released after the Mexican government launched a strong crackdown on drug trafficking organizations, in the context of rapidly escalating drug-related violence in the country.

While Guzman failed to complete his biopic, another film titled "El Chapo: The Escape Of The Century", about Guzman's life and his recent unprecedented escape, is set to hit theaters in Mexico on January 15.

According to Carlos Olivares, the film's distributor, this is just the first part of a four-part series about Guzman's life in reverse order.

After Guzman's prison break in the middle of last year, the US press also reported that director Ridley Scott is planning to cooperate with 20th Century Fox to produce the film "The Cartel", adapted from the novel of the same name by famous American crime writer Don Winslow. This novel is based on the real life of drug lord Guzman. Director Scott is said to be targeting actor Leonardo DiCaprio to play the lead role in the film.

According to VNE