Today is inauguration day, and Donald Trump is officially our president. But that doesn’t mean that everyone is on board–Trump remains divisive on many issues, including climate change. Now that it’s official that 2016 was the warmest year on record, hopefully Trump and company will start listening to the scientists on this one. Read on for the last rants of the week!

Welcome to RantCrush Top 5, where we take you through today’s top five controversial stories in the world of law and policy. Who’s ranting and raving right now? Check it out below:

Today’s the Day…

Today is the presidential inauguration of Donald J. Trump. Almost 1 million people are there to witness the transfer of power and there have already been clashes between protesters and supporters. Last night police had to use pepper spray to keep protesters at bay as they filled up the area outside the National Press Club, where the pre-inaugural ball, nicknamed the “DeploraBall,” took place. There were at least four fights between protesters and guests attending the ball and people threw water bottles and debris.

Powerful Movement for Black Lives has kept this #inauguration access checkpoint shut down for hours. pic.twitter.com/7FvsAu3u9u

— #DisruptJ20 (@DisruptJ20) January 20, 2017

Trump spent the night in the Blair House, located across the street from the White House, and went to church in the morning for a short prayer service. The inaugural program started at 11 a.m. At 3 p.m. the inauguration parade will begin, which is expected to last for about 90 minutes, making it the shortest one on record. Overall, the affair may end up being notably low key. Trump has had a hard time finding artists to perform at the ceremony itself, and Trump’s team has aimed to keep the prices of inaugural ball tickets low so that they’re accessible to working class people.

It all begins today! I will see you at 11:00 A.M. for the swearing-in. THE MOVEMENT CONTINUES – THE WORK BEGINS!

— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 20, 2017

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post RantCrush Top 5: January 20, 2017 appeared first on Law Street.

Welcome to the RantCrush Top 5, where we take you through the top five controversial and crazy stories in the world of law and policy each day. So who is ranting and who is raving today? Check it out below:

Elizabeth Warren and Donald Trump’s Twitter War Escalates

Today’s edition of “Morning Joe” on MSNBC discussed some very important news: Donald Trump and Elizabeth Warren’s Twitter war. Besides the fact that it’s getting very much out of hand, the hosts raised some real concerns that it reflects the state of American politics in the age of social media. Likening the debacle to cyberbullying, the hosts wondered what kind of awful example these “leaders of the free world” were setting for young people. They also wondered when the senator and GOP frontrunner were going to use their Twitter savvy to impact real change on actual issues instead of personal attacks. While many see Trump’s weekend jabs at Warren and the Clintons as weaknesses, many others see it as turbo fuel for getting him to the White House. Check out the full early morning rant below:

Uber & Lyft Vow to Leave Austin, Texas after Voters affirm regulations

Ride hailing companies Uber and Lyft lost their grip Saturday after Austin voters decided it would be best for the companies to continue to be regulated by the city’s ordinances instead of looser laws. This requires Uber and Lyft drivers to undergo more intense background checks, among other protocols. The two companies have seen worldwide success and popularity, but it did them no good in Austin, a presumably  lucrative market. Although they spent over $8 million on ads, voters didn’t go their way. To be very honest, after that crazy  driver in Kalamazoo, Michigan that killed six people, injured others, and claimed to be possessed by the app, many feel as though no amount of regulation will be quite enough.

Ivy League economist ethnically profiled and interrogated for doing math on American Airlines flight

You may be wondering: How does one get interrogated for doing math on an American Airlines flight? Let alone a differential equation. Because when someone is doing that kind of math in their casual spare time it must be important and you shouldn’t question them. You should just stand back in awe, because most Americans actually suck at math.

But this puzzling scenario happened to Guido Menzio, a decorated Ivy league economist. Unfortunately for Menzio, a passenger next to him thought he was writing in Arabic and was, presumably, a terrorist. *Face palm* Instances of this kind are on the rise, and are often unfounded, as seen with the “Clock Kid” 14-year old Ahmed Mohamed, who was arrested for bringing a hand-made clock to school.

Melissa Joan Hart and Julianne Moore March for “Gun Sense”

Melissa Joan Hart and Julianne Moore are two Hollywood stars who were greatly affected by the news of the Sandy Hook shooting, a tragic event that left many young children dead and dozens parents mourning. This past weekend, the actresses joined hundreds of parents in support of Moms Demand Action, a group advocating gun control. Gun control has been a contentious topic of dispute for many years. But while many attribute pro-gun attitudes to conservatives and anti-gun to liberals, Moore has said she believes it should not be a partisan issue but rather a “safety” issue.

‘They stole my big brother’: violence turns child into champion for ‘gun sense’ https://t.co/Ji36LIfiMJ pic.twitter.com/V8DFjZwqu0

— Moms Demand Action (@MomsDemand) May 9, 2016

Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman can be extradited to U.S. to face charges

Just in case there wasn’t enough El Chapo drama in your life, a Mexican judge ruled that El Chapo can be extradited to the U.S. to face charges for drug trafficking in accordance to a U.S.-Mexican extradition treaty. Although the legal side has been justified, the ministry has 20 days to authorize the extradition.

In the meantime, El Chapo has been moved to a less secure prison in Juarez, one of his cartel’s strongholds. An anonymous official admitted that there is concern that, while Guzman is being surveilled day and night in a secure wing of the prison, the Juarez prison is more lax than the one Guzman previously resided in. This move raised eyebrows for the DEA, and officials questioned the logic of moving him to a less secure prison where he potentially had the tools and people to help him escape. Prison break again, anyone?

Rant Crush

RantCrush collects the top trending topics in the law and policy world each day just for you.

The post RantCrush Top 5: May 9, 2016 appeared first on Law Street.

Kate del Castillo has had a successful career in Mexican film and television, but she has made headlines this week not for her acting ability but for revelations about her role in brokering a meeting between notorious cartel leader Joaquín Archivaldo Guzmán Loera, also known as El Chapo, and Sean Penn.

Let’s back up a little bit. In January, Penn interviewed Guzman for Rolling Stone, publishing an article which has come under fire both from del Castillo (who argues that Penn misrepresented what he would be writing when he described the article to her) and from law enforcement (who assert that once Penn had knowledge of Guzman’s whereabouts, he should have immediately contacted the police). Penn himself has admitted that the article failed to initiate a meaningful discussion of the war on drugs and the political situation within Mexico.

Del Castillo has published an essay in Spanish that describes how she came to be contacted by Guzman’s lawyers, who thought she could be a value add to a biopic film describing his life. The actress has become a household name in Mexico thanks to her role as the scheming mastermind behind a major drug cartel on the popular telenovela “Reina del Sur,” and it is that role that partially inspired Guzman’s interest in her. His representation also cited her presence on Twitter, in which she had directly addressed Guzman, asking him to consider alternatives to drug trafficking, prostitution and murder.

The Mexican newspaper Milenio secured a string of leaked texts between del Castillo and Guzman, dated from the period during which she was arranging the meet between him and Penn, which suggest a friendly relationship between the actress and the criminal. Guzman’s attitude towards del Castillo has alleged to be one of romantic interest, which further muddies the waters regarding the relationship between the two. Del Castillo wrote in her essay that nothing romantic happened between the two of them, but that hasn’t stopped a flood of thousands of memes and social media posts mocking the tone of her texts with Guzman. The actress was placed under investigation by authorities almost immediately after the Penn article was published and is currently being cooperative with law enforcement.

But Del Castillo’s interaction with Guzman raises interesting questions about the nature of celebrity, and where we draw the line between being qualified to deal with  fearsome characters on television and being able to handle a high-stakes criminal in person. Del Castillo’s essay illustrates how terrified she was meeting Guzman in person, despite the fact that her texts prior to that meeting emphasize how excited she was to be meeting with him. Del Castillo may play a calculating, cold-blooded crime boss on television but that doesn’t mean she has the skills for negotiating a crisis scenario in real life.

Del Castillo’s organization of the meeting with Penn may have contributed to the later capture of Guzman (as without the meeting, he could have remained in hiding indefinitely) but her actions should not be considered intelligent–and should not be duplicated by other public figures who think that they can pacify major criminals by simply impressing them with their celebrity. As Del Castillo’s description of meeting El Chapo face to face demonstrates, dangerous cartel leaders cannot be taken lightly, no matter how much they like a given person’s Twitter account. Her actions must be considered a bizarre cautionary tale, not a template for how celebrities, or anyone else, should act if they are contacted by fugitives.

Jillian Sequeira

Jillian Sequeira was a member of the College of William and Mary Class of 2016, with a double major in Government and Italian. When she’s not blogging, she’s photographing graffiti around the world and worshiping at the altar of Elon Musk and all things Tesla. Contact Jillian at Staff@LawStreetMedia.com

The post The Odd Couple: Kate del Castillo and El Chapo appeared first on Law Street.

Early in the morning on January 8, the notorious cartel leader Joaquin Guzman, also known as El Chapo, was captured, yet again, by Mexican authorities following a heated gun battle at his hideout. While Guzman’s story has a number of interesting subplots, including his multiple previous escapes and an interview with Sean Penn, it also points to something: the ongoing war on drugs taking place with its epicenter in Mexico. However, this has not always been the state of things, as South America, particularly Colombia, was once home to the heart of drug trafficking and its most infamous leader Pablo Escobar. But the recent arrest highlights how that center has moved north and, not coincidently, much closer to the U.S. border. Read on to see how the heart of the drug trade has shifted in recent years, what impact that has had in Mexico, the role of the United States, and if capturing El Chapo really makes any difference in the larger war on drugs.

It Started in South America Now it’s Here

To understand the importance of capturing someone like El Chapo, or even the Mexican drug trafficking industry in general, it is necessary to travel one step backward to Colombia. The Colombian drug trade really took off in the 1970s when marijuana traffickers began trading in cocaine because of increased American demand for the drug. Trafficking cocaine was considerably more profitable than marijuana and the growth in profits caused a dramatic increase in the scale of smuggling.

The amount of money in this industry led to the formation of two incredibly powerful competing cartels, the Medellin and the Cali Cartels. The Medellin Cartel, known for its ruthlessness and use of violence, was epitomized by its leader, the notorious Pablo Escobar. The Cali cartel, on the other hand, was much more inconspicuous, reinvesting profits in legitimate businesses and using bribery instead of violence to get its way. The competition between these two groups turned violent, eventually involving the Colombian government and even the United States.

In the 1990s, these two groups were finally undone by concerted efforts between the local Colombian government and U.S. advisors that led to their leaders being either imprisoned or killed. Since their peak, these empires have fragmented, as smaller groups took control over various parts of the cocaine-producing process. While the violence in Colombia has decreased, though not disappeared altogether, the dominant player in the drug trafficking world has shifted to Mexico.

Going North

Mexico had originally been the final corridor through which Colombian cocaine passed before entering the United States. Before Mexico, cocaine had been smuggled through the Caribbean to cities like Miami. Ultimately, though, those routes were shut down by the United States. During the peak years of operation in Colombia, Mexico was little more than a path into the United States. However, this began to change with the demise of the Cali and Medellin cartels, coupled with continued American pressure and aid packages to help the Colombian government fight the local drug trade. Due to fragmentation and weakening Colombian cartels, the center of the drug trade shifted north in Mexico. Mexico served as a natural hub due to its earlier involvement in distributing the drugs produced in Colombia.

While the Mexican cartels came to dominate the illegal drug trade, their rise preceded the actual demise of their Colombian brethren. Much of the history of modern cartels in Mexico can be traced back to one man, Miguel Angel Felix Gallardo. Gallardo was responsible for creating and maintaining the smuggling routes between Mexico and the United States. When he was arrested, his network splintered into several parts, laying the groundwork for many of the cartel divisions that exist today. The first major successor was the AFO or Tijuana/Arellano Felix organization. However, its status was usurped by the Sinaloa Cartel under El Chapo’s control.

The Sinaloa Cartel is believed to control between 40 and 60 percent of the drug trade in Mexico with that translating into annual profits of up to $3 billion, but it is only one of nine that currently dominate Mexico. The activities of these cartels have also expanded as they are now involved in other criminal activities such as kidnapping, extortion, theft, human trafficking, as well as smuggling new drugs to the United States.

The rise of the Mexican cartels can be attributed to other factors aside from the demise of the Colombian groups. One such factor was the role of the Mexican government. During the important period of their ascendancy, the cartels were largely left alone by the Mexican government, which was controlled by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) for 71 years. When the PRI’s grip on power finally loosened, the alliance with the cartels also shredded.

The growth of the Mexican cartels may also have been the result of economic problems in the United States. Stagflation in the United States led to higher interest rates on loans, which Mexico could not pay. In order to avert an economic crisis, several international institutions stepped in to bail Mexico out, which shifted the government’s focus from its economy to repaying debt. As a result of aggressive policies directed toward Mexican workers and because of the deleterious effects of the NAFTA treaty, there was a dramatic loss of jobs and a shift to a more urban population.

In this new setting, there were few opportunities available, making positions with drug cartels one of the few lucrative options along with growing the crops like poppy, which is used to create the drugs themselves. According to farmers interviewed by the Guardian, growing poppy is the only way for them to guarantee a “cash income.” An increase in the availability of firearms and other weapons smuggled south from the United States only added to the violence and chaos. The video below depicts the history of the Mexican drug trade:

Impact on Mexico

These endless wars for control between cartels in Mexico have taken a significant toll on the country. Between 2007 and 2014, for example, 164,000 people were killed in America’s southern neighbor. While not all those murders are drug-related, some estimates suggest 34 to 55 percent of homicides involve the drug war, a rate that is still incredibly high.

Aside from the number of deaths, all of the violence has influenced the Mexican people’s trust in the government as a whole. That lack of faith may be well founded as the weaknesses of the judicial and police forces are widely known. When the PRI was the single ruling party, it had effectively served as patrons to the drug cartels where an understanding was essentially worked out between the two. When the PRI lost its grip on power, this de-facto alliance between the government and the cartels also splintered. Without centralized consent, individuals at all levels of government as well as in the judiciary and police became susceptible to bribes from the various cartels.  In fact, many were often presented with the choice of either going along with the cartels in exchange for money or being harmed if they resisted. The corruption and subsequent lack of trust in authorities have gotten so bad that some citizens are forming militias of their own to combat the cartels.

Role of the United States

In addition to the impact that the U.S. economy has in terms of job opportunities, particularly since the passage of NAFTA, the United States has had a major impact on the drug trade in two other ways. First are the U.S. efforts to curb the supply of drugs, which were organized as part of the overall war on drugs. While the United States has had a variety of drug laws on the books, it was not until after the 1960s that the government took direct aim at eliminating illicit substances. In 1971, President Nixon formally launched a “war on drugs,” taking an aggressive stance implementing laws like mandatory minimum sentencing and labeling marijuana as a Schedule I drug, which made it equivalent to substances like heroin in the eyes of the law.

This emphasis on drug laws only intensified under President Reagan, whose persistence in prosecuting drug crimes led to a large increase in the prison population. During Reagan’s presidency, Congress also passed the Anti-Drug Abuse Act in 1986, which forced countries receiving U.S. aid to adhere to its drug laws or lose their assistance packages. These policies more or less continued for decades, often with more and more money being set aside to increase enforcement. Only in recent years has President Barack Obama offered much of a change as he has overseen modifications in sentencing and the perception of medical marijuana laws.

This focus on supply extends beyond the U.S. border as well. First, in Colombia, the United States repeatedly put pressure on the Colombian government to fight the drug traffickers. With these efforts still ineffective and with violence mounting, the United States again poured money into the country, helping to finance needed reforms in the Colombian security forces and for other things like crop eradication. In Mexico, a similar approach followed as a series of presidents, beginning in the 1980s, took on much more combative roles against the cartels with the approval and support of the United States. The United States helped support an armed forces overhaul to combat the traffickers and root out corruption within the Mexican armed forces, which had begun to permeate as a result of low wages. In Mexico, successive governments even went so far as to send the military into cartel-dominated cities and engage in assaults. While Presidents Zedillo, Fox, and Calderon sent in troops and met with some immediate success, in the long term it led to mass army defections, greater awareness of the reach of the drug economy, and ultimately other cartels filling the void where government forces were successful.

Since the inception of the drug war, the United States has spent an estimated $1 trillion. Primarily what the United States has to show for this is a number of unintended consequences such as the highest incarceration rates in the world. Another is one of the highest rates of HIV/AIDs of any Western nation fueled, in part, by the use of dirty syringes among drug users.

The problem is that for all its efforts to eliminate supply, the United States has done much less about demand, its other contribution to the drug trade. In fact, the United States is widely regarded as the number one market in the world for illegal drugs. To address demand instead of concentrating on supply, the United States could shift more of its focus to programs that educate or offer rehabilitation to drug users, which have been shown to be effective in small scale efforts.  Certain states have begun to decriminalize or legalize marijuana, a step which will certainly reduce the number of inmates and may also reduce levels of drug-related violence. Yet there is no single way to outright reduce the demand for drugs and some view decriminalization as actually fueling the problem. The following video provides an overview of the resources invested into the United Stats’ war on drugs:

The Importance of Capturing El Chapo

Considering all of the resources and efforts put in place, it is important to consider how much of an impact El Chapo’s arrest will actually have. Unfortunately, it looks like the answer is not much, if any at all. In fact, even El Chapo himself weighed in on his arrest’s effects on the drug trade, telling Sean Penn in an interview, “the day I don’t exist, it’s not going to decrease in any way at all.” El Chapo’s point is clearly illustrated through the number of drug seizures at the border. While exact amounts fluctuate, nearly 700,000 more pounds of marijuana were seized in 2011 than in 2005. The amount of heroin and amphetamines seized has also gone up as well.

The following video details El Chapo’s most recent capture:

His most recent arrest was actually his third; the first two times he escaped from maximum security prisons in stylish fashions, which is one of the reasons that U.S. authorities want Mexico to extradite him. Regardless of where he is ultimately held, since his first arrest in 1993 the drug trade has not suffered when he or any other cartel leader was captured or killed, nor has it suffered from the growth in seizures.

In fact, one of the major points of collaboration between Mexican and U.S. authorities has been on targeting, capturing, or killing of the kingpins of these cartels. While these operations have been successful in apprehending individuals, what they really result in is the further fragmentation of the drug trade. While some may argue that detaining top leaders and fragmenting the centralized drug trade is a mark of success, evidence suggests this is not so.

Conclusion

Aside from relocating the hub of the drug trade to Mexico, the war on drugs has had several other unintended consequences such as high civilian deaths, persistently high rates of HIV infection, and massive levels of incarceration to name a few. While the United States has had some success targeting suppliers and traffickers, it has been unable to reduce demand domestically.

Those involved in Mexico faced a similar conundrum. Not only do citizens in Mexico not trust their government, many of them have become dependent on the drug trade and shutting it down could actually hurt the economic prospects of many citizens.

While El Chapo’s most recent capture has the potential to provide the government with some credibility, it still may not mean much. Even if he is prevented from escaping again or running his old empire from jail, someone will likely take his place. That is because the drug trade does not rely on individuals but on demand and profits. Until these issues are addressed and Mexican citizens have legitimate alternatives to joining cartels, it does not matter how many cartel leaders are arrested, the situation will remain the same.

Resources

CNN: ‘Mission Accomplished’: Mexican President Says ‘El Chapo’ Caught

Frontline: The Colombian Cartels

Borderland Beat: The Story of Drug Trafficking in Latin America

Congressional Research Service: Mexico: Organized Crime and Drug Trafficking Organizations

Jacobin: How the Cartels Were Born

Frontline: The Staggering Death Toll of Mexico’s Drug War

Council on Foreign Relations: Mexico’s Drug War

Drug Policy Alliance: A Brief History of the Drug War

Matador Network: 10 Facts About America’s War On Drugs That Will Shock You

The Washington Post: Latin American Leaders Assail U.S. Drug ‘Market’

The Huffington Post: Why The Capture of ‘El Chapo’ Guzman Won’t Stop His Cartel

The Guardian: Mexican Farmers Turn to Opium Poppies to Meet Surge in US Heroin Demand

CIR: Drug Seizures Along the U.S.-Mexico Border

Michael Sliwinski

Michael Sliwinski (@MoneyMike4289) is a 2011 graduate of Ohio University in Athens with a Bachelor’s in History, as well as a 2014 graduate of the University of Georgia with a Master’s in International Policy. In his free time he enjoys writing, reading, and outdoor activites, particularly basketball. Contact Michael at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Finding El Chapo: What his Arrest Means for Mexico and the Drug Trade appeared first on Law Street.

I was in an airport in New York City when I first heard that Sean Penn wrote a 10,000 word piece on El Chapo for Rolling Stone, which may have led to El Chapo’s recapture. The place was significant to me because I had spent the last two weeks in the city that never sleeps, where some of the country’s best journalists live and write and report the news. My first thought was, So Sean Penn writes now? Huh.

In reading the article, I had a hard time getting past the line where he says he never learned how to use a laptop and wasn’t sure they were made anymore. The article was cheesy. It was poorly written. It did nothing for me. But it got me thinking about journalism as a whole–that’s when I started to pay attention.

When sensational things like this happen–where a famous person and an infamous person meet in secret for an article in Rolling Stone, for example–I find that it’s more important to pay attention to the aftermath than to the actual event. In the aftermath of this article being released, there were comments from all sides on every single news outlet that I watched. Many began by covering the recapture of El Chapo and the plan to extradite him to the United States so that he can’t escape from prison again (you really need to step up your prison game when you’re holding drug lords, Mexico). Inevitably, though, they always eventually started talking about Sean Penn and playing clips from an interview he did with Charlie Rose on “60 Minutes.” That is when things get interesting.

According to the interview, Sean Penn is sad about the state of journalism. He says, “’Journalists’ [the air quotes are his] who want to say I’m not a journalist, well, I want to see the license that says that they’re a journalist.” (The emphasis is also his.) He doesn’t seem to grasp where he’s sitting and who he’s talking to, and that’s what’s making people–especially other journalists–angry.

First of all, to those who say that Sean Penn has never written anything–he has. His IMDB page shows that he has six writing credits, including two screenplays. He has also used his fame and his political and social beliefs to have editorials published in The Washington Post and The New York Times, along with other publications. He has interviewed controversial world leaders such as Raul Castro and Hugo Chavez. He has never seemed to find his footing, however, amongst the journalistic community.

Second, consider who Sean Penn is talking to on “60 Minutes.” Charlie Rose holds a law degree from Duke University. He has won awards for his journalism, including an Emmy Award for his interview with Charles Manson and a Peabody Award for his interview with Jimmy Carter while he was president. Sean Penn was insulting journalism in front of a successful and revered journalist. He was asking to see Charlie Rose’s “journalism license” as he sat right in front of him.

Charlie Rose, for his part, remained calm and collected about the whole thing, never showing offense to the ridiculous things that Sean Penn said about journalism. The interview, as a whole, did not show Sean Penn in a great light. He seemed selfish, dismissive, and defensive. He said that no one understood him. He tried to make it into everyone else’s fault that his Rolling Stone article “failed.”

This, to me, is what makes it clear that Sean Penn isn’t a journalist, even though he wants to be. Journalism (in most cases) is about reporting facts in a way that makes a story enticing to read or watch. It isn’t about making a point–it’s about revealing something new that people at large are interested in. No, you don’t need a license, but you need generally need a college degree and an understanding of what the end goal is. An interview with El Chapo could have been a very interesting piece of journalism. It had the potential to become something big and important, like interviews with criminals that reveal some of their motivations and tendencies. What Sean Penn did was write an extremely long self-indulgent essay for a magazine that was as much about him as it was about his subject. In addition, he let El Chapo review the piece before it went to press. Sure, he wrote something for a magazine. I guess that makes him a journalist. But what he wrote wasn’t journalism. It was a bizarre memoir. That’s the difference.

Amanda Gernentz Hanson

Amanda Gernentz Hanson is a Minnesota native living in Austin, Texas. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in Chemistry from Hope College and a Master’s degree in Technical Communication from Minnesota State University, where her final project discussed intellectual property issues in freelancing and blogging. Amanda is an instructional designer full time, a freelance writer part time, and a nerd always. Contact Amanda at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Is Sean Penn a Journalist? appeared first on Law Street.

In a particularly strange piece of news, Academy Award winning actor Sean Penn secretly met with fugitive Mexican drug kingpin Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, and wrote an article about it for Rolling Stone. El Chapo has now been arrested, but the article went up on Rolling Stone’s website last night. The entire situation is incredibly odd, but the fun part is that some of the individual facts are even odder. Check out the top five weirdest things about Sean Penn’s interview with El Chapo:

5. El Chapo Doesn’t do Drugs

Despite the fact that El Chapo claims to supply “more heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana than anybody else in the world,” he doesn’t do drugs personally. In fact, he hasn’t done any drugs in 20 years.

4. In Fact, He Does Hugs not Drugs

When Sean Penn first met “El Chapo,” the drug kingpin hugged him. Penn wrote that when they met, “he pulls me into a ‘compadre’ hug, looks me in the eyes and speaks a lengthy greeting in Spanish too fast for my ears.”

3. Yet, Sean Penn Still Farted in Front of El Chapo

Sean Penn bizarrely admitted to farting in front of El Chapo, and determined that the drug lord was very chivalrous for pretending not to notice, writing: “At this moment, I expel a minor traveler’s flatulence (sorry), and with it, I experience the same chivalry he’d offered when putting Kate to bed, as he pretends not to notice.”

2. Sean Penn Doesn’t Know How to use a Laptop

I’m going to leave this quote, from Sean Penn, without any context: “At 55 years old, I’ve never learned to use a laptop. Do they still make laptops? No fucking idea!”

Are we supposed to believe that Sean Penn hasn’t even seen a laptop recently?

1. But Somehow, They Still Use BBM

The strangest part of this, somehow, is the fact that part of the interview as well as part of the setup was conducted using BBM, or Blackberry Messenger. Given that Blackberries have become borderline obsolete, it’s a charmingly strange addition to the story. I, for one, am impressed that Sean Penn couldn’t figure out how to use a laptop, but could figure out a Blackberry.

Anneliese Mahoney

Anneliese Mahoney is Managing Editor at Law Street and a Connecticut transplant to Washington D.C. She has a Bachelor’s degree in International Affairs from the George Washington University, and a passion for law, politics, and social issues. Contact Anneliese at amahoney@LawStreetMedia.com.

The post Five Weirdest Parts of Sean Penn’s Interview with El Chapo appeared first on Law Street.

Just as the search for New York prison escapees David Sweat and Richard Matt recently came to an end, an even bigger manhunt has begun in Mexico. Joaquin Guzman, also known as “El Chapo” and Mexico’s most powerful drug lord, escaped from Altiplano maximum security federal prison on Saturday night.

This isn’t Guzman’s first escape. In 2001 he escaped by hiding in a laundry cart with the help from prison guards who were later prosecuted and convicted. He was not captured again until 2014 during a raid in a condo in Mazatlan, a Pacific resort in Sinaloa state.

After spending almost a year and a half behind bars, the kingpin is on the loose again. Guzman used an intricate escape route that was somehow built without any authorities noticing. According to the National Security Commission, he was last seen in his shower area around 9pm on Saturday. Once he was lost by the prison’s security cameras, his cell was checked. Authorities found it empty and saw a 20-by-20-inch hole near the shower. He climbed down a 30 foot vertical hole and then escaped through a fully ventilated tunnel with lighting according to National Security Commissioner Monte Alejandro Rubid. Guzman’s cartel is known for building tunnels beneath the Mexico-U.S. border to transport cocaine, methamphetamines, and marijuana, often including ventilation, lighting, and even railcars to easily move products. The tunnel ended in a half-built barn, which according to an unidentified woman was bought by outsiders–possibly connected to Guzman–who began to build immediately about a year ago. Tools, oxygen tanks, and a motorcycle adapted to run on rails were also found by authorities.

#ElChapo‘s friends built him an underground tunnel and helped him escape prison on a motorcycle…. My friends don’t even text me back…

— JayDalton (@JayyDalton) July 13, 2015

While Guzman was a fugitive after his 2001 escape, he turned himself into one of the world’s most notorious drug traffickers with an estimated fortune of $1 billion. Forbes magazine listed him among the “World’s Most Powerful People,” and ranked him above the presidents of countries such as France and Venezuela. Michael S. Vigil, retired U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration Chief of International Operations, stated that if El Chapo is not caught immediately he will most likely be back in full command of the Sinaloa cartel within two days. So far thirty employees from Altiplano have been questioned to see if Guzman received any inside help. His escape has embarrassed the Pena Nieto administration, which once received praise for its aggressive approach to top drug lords. President Enrique Pena Nieto said:

This represents without a doubt an affront to the Mexican state. But I also have confidence in the institutions of the Mexican state … that they have the strength and determination to recapture this criminal.

In an interview after Guzman’s 2014 arrest, the president said that allowing him to escape again would be “unforgivable.” The attorney general at the time, Jesús Murillo Karam, said the possibility of another Guzman escape “does not exist.” Clearly both men were wrong. Ana Maria Salazar, a security analyst and former Pentagon counter-narcotics official stated exactly what most people are thinking,

One would have assumed that he would have been the most watched criminal in the world, and apparently, that just didn’t happen. This is a huge embarrassment for the Mexican government. Obviously it’s going to raise a lot of questions as to what’s happening with the Mexican criminal justice system.

Authorities have launched a widespread manhunt to find Guzman and have also closed Toluca International Airport, which is a 45 minute drive away from the prison. The drug lord was very prepared and probably had his escape and post-escape plans well thought out. This scandal should serve as a huge wake up call for the the Mexican government. Officials need to thoroughly examine their prisons and improve the security so that there will be no more chances of criminals escaping. There was no trace of Guzman 24 hours after his escape and officials are going to have to work extremely hard to find him, given his track record.

Taelor Bentley

Taelor is a member of the Hampton University Class of 2017 and was a Law Street Media Fellow for the Summer of 2015. Contact Taelor at staff@LawStreetMedia.com.

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