Penn, in an article published by Rolling Stone magazine on Saturday, said del Castillo had been in contact with Guzman while he was in prison through letters after the kingpin’s attorney approached her.
The drug lord wanted to make a film about himself but “would entrust its telling only to Kate,” Penn wrote.
President Enrique Pena Nieto’s spokesman, Eduardo Sanchez, said the clandestine meeting between the actors and Guzman was under investigation.
“What’s being investigated is the actions. People are not being investigated,” Sanchez said.
Sanchez said the government “regrets any acts of collaboration between any citizen and members of organized crime” or that a Mexican citizen “does not share” information that would help arrest a criminal.
Legal experts doubt that the actors will face charges, especially if their meeting with Guzman is seen as journalistic work.
But they could face money-laundering charges if there was a transaction for a film made with “money from illegal sources,” legal expert Juan Velazquez told AFP.
Del Castillo sparked uproar in 2012 when she wrote on Twitter that she believes “more in Chapo Guzman than the governments.”
She later said that her messages to Guzman were “ironic” but Penn wrote in Rolling Stone that the kingpin sought to send her flowers afterwards.
– Prison beefed up –
Guzman is now back at the Altiplano maximum-security prison some 90 kilometers west of Mexico City while authorities seek to extradite him to the United States.
As well as moving him from cell to cell, officials said other steps have been taken to prevent Guzman — who escaped from another prison in 2001 — from breaking out a third time.
After his July 11 escape, a dozen prison officials were detained and security was increased with extra surveillance cameras and metal rods in the floors to prevent new tunnels.
“Each and every each one of the flaws have been fixed,” an official said.
About The Author
