'Is Sean Penn interview with El Chapo an elaborate government plot to capture fugitive drug lord?

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 As news emerged of the peculiar series of events that led to El Chapo's capture, Twitter was ablaze with one question: Is Sean Penn a CIA spy?

The actor met with the world's most wanted drug lord in the jungle to ask him a handful of Hollywood-worthy questions such as 'do you dream?' and 'how would you define yourself?'

And then just hours after the Sinaloa cartel leader was detained by Mexican marines, the Rolling Stone published a lyrical 10,000-word account of their meeting.

Supposedly the entire 'clandestine horror show' - as Penn put it - was part of a research project to develop a Netflix-style drama about Guzmán and his prison break.

Though Penn insists he went to extreme lengths to hide the meeting from authorities, the details have sparked widespread speculation that he was in fact tapped by the CIA to locate the fugitive criminal - just as screenwriters were enlisted to make Argo to free US hostages in Iran in 1979.

The actor claimed the cartel leader was concerned about the low-lying water table beneath the jail. 

The Mystic River star said he did not turn El Chapo in because the drug lord's trust 'was not to be f***ed with'.

'I take no pride in keeping secrets that may be perceived as protecting criminals, nor do I have any gloating arrogance at posing for selfies with unknowing security men. But I'm in my rhythm. Everything I say to everyone must be true,' Penn wrote.

Penn and del Castillo are now under investigation in Mexico. 

In an article written by Penn for Rolling Stone, El Chapo says: 'I supply more heroin, methamphetamine, cocaine and marijuana than anybody else in the world. I have a fleet of submarines, airplanes, trucks and boats.' 

Despite his notoriety, up until this point the Mexican gangster had always insisted he was 'just a farmer'. 

A top White House official said on Sunday that Guzman's boast to Penn of being the world's top supplier of illegal drugs is 'maddening'. 

'I will tell you this braggadocious action about how much heroin he sends around the world, including the United States, is maddening,' White House chief of staff Denis McDonough said in an interview with CNN's State of the Union.

'We see a heroin epidemic, opioid addiction epidemic in this country. We are going to stay on top of this with our Mexican counterparts until we get that back in the box.

'But El Chapo is behind bars. That's where he should stay,' he added.

Guzman, 58, escaped from a Mexican maximum security prison through a tunnel in July, eluding his pursuers until his capture in the seaside town of Los Mochis after a raid that left five people dead.

Penn's interview with the Sinaloa cartel chief was published Saturday by Rolling Stone magazine, and an official in Mexico City said Mexican authorities wanted to talk to him and actress Kate del Castillo, who helped arrange the meeting.

'It poses a lot of interesting questions for him and others involved in this so-called interview. We'll see what happens,' McDonough said.

Scores of people have called for Sean Penn to be arrested for meeting the world's most wanted drug lord El Chapo while he was on the run and not turning him in to the authorities.

Twitter users demanded Penn be questioned by investigators as to why he met with the violent cartel leader and did not help the military track him down. Well well well, he better strengthen his security personal, because he is way in to it.