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Reports: Mexican Authorities Want To Question Sean Penn About 'El Chapo' Meeting

MEXICO CITY (CBSNewYork/AP) -- Mexican authorities want to speak with actor Sean Penn after his interview helped lead to the capture of the drug lord known as "El Chapo," according to multiple reports.

Penn interviewed Joaquin Guzman for Rolling Stone magazine during a secret October meeting. Guzman was interested in having a movie filmed about his life, Penn wrote.

The "Milk" actor purportedly met with Guzman in late 2015, before the drug lord's capture by security forces, at an undisclosed hideout in Mexico. The interview appeared late Saturday on the magazine's website.

Penn wrote that Guzman wanted Mexican actress Kate del Castillo, who facilitated the meeting between the men, involved in the project.

"He was interested in seeing the story of his life told on film, but would entrust its telling only to Kate," Penn wrote in the article.

According to reports, Mexican authorities want to question both Penn and del Castillo. They want to learn more about the location where the meeting took place, a source told CNN.

Meanwhile, Penn is also likely to face many questions in his own country.

"Why would anyone meet with this vicious man in secret and not let the authorities know?" Sen. Charles Schumer, D-N.Y., told reporters Sunday. "We do not know if he let the authorities know or not, and some of the authorities have said that they knew that he was meeting with celebrities. But it seems to me you have a greater obligation to bring this man to justice than to do a documentary on him."

A Mexican law enforcement official, who spoke Saturday on condition of anonymity, said it was the Penn interview that led authorities to Guzman in a rural part of Durango state in October. They aborted their raid at the time because he was with two women and child.

Guzman was arrested early Friday after a shootout in his home state of Culiacan that killed five and injured one marine.

Rolling Stone's website has a two-minute video it says is the first ever exclusive interview with Guzman. It is in Spanish and in it Guzman sits in front of a chain link face and speaks to a camera. He is wearing a print blue shirt and dark baseball cap, but his face is clearly visible. Accompanying the article is a picture of Penn shaking hands with Guzman.

In the interview, when asked about whether he is responsible for the high level of drug addiction in the world Guzman responds: "No, that is false, because the day I don't exist, it's not going to decrease in any way at all. Drug trafficking? That's false."

Guzman was on the lam for six months after escaping from a Mexican prison.

The Mexican government has agreed to extradite El Chapo to the U.S. to face drug and murder charges.

(TM and © Copyright 2016 CBS Radio Inc. and its relevant subsidiaries. CBS RADIO and EYE Logo TM and Copyright 2016 CBS Broadcasting Inc. Used under license. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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