BETRAYED by his desire to make a biopic, Mexican drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman was back Saturday in the prison he escaped from six months ago, amid calls to extradite him to the United States.

    The world’s most-wanted drug baron was arrested in a military raid early Friday that left five suspects dead in Los Mochis, a coastal city in his native northwestern state of Sinaloa.

    Hours later, the Sinaloa cartel kingpin was flown in a military helicopter from Mexico City to the Altiplano maximum-security prison, the scene of his daring July 11 escape some 90 kilometers west of the capital.

    On July 11, after just 17 months at Altiplano, Guzman slipped through a hole in his cell’s shower, climbed on a motorcycle mounted on rails, and traveled 1.5 kilometers through a tunnel to freedom.

    But six months later, Guzman was back in the prison after authorities located him, in part because the kingpin wanted to make a biographical film about himself, according to Attorney General Arely Gomez.

    Gomez said an “important aspect that allowed us to locate him was that we discovered Guzman’s intention to make a biographical film, for which he established contact with actresses and producers.”

    “The follow-up work allowed us to document meetings between attorneys of the now-detainee and these people,” she said, adding that the matter was under investigation.

    The manhunt led to his recapture, which featured one last underground escape for the man who became known as “The Lord of Tunnels” for his ability to ship drugs to the United States under the border and dig his way out of trouble.

    Guzman was nearly captured in the mountain region in October, but marines chasing him in a helicopter decided not to shoot because he was accompanied by two women and a girl, Gomez said.

    The months-long investigation culminated in a house in Los Mochis, which authorities began to stake out in December.

    Marines were met by gunfire when they swooped in Friday, leaving five suspects dead and one marine wounded. Six others were detained in the operation.

    Guzman and his security chief fled through the city’s drainage system, repeating a tactic the drug kingpin successfully used in escaping authorities in 2014 in the nearby city of Culiacan. This time, however, the marines expected such a move, Gomez said.

    The wanted men came out of a manhole and stole a car, but they were captured on a road and taken to a motel, where Guzman was seated on a bed, wearing a dirty sleeveless shirt — an ignominious end for a kingpin whose billionaire drug business reaches as far as Asia and Europe.

    The 58-year-old’s arrest provided a major sigh of relief for President Enrique Pena Nieto, whose administration was humiliated when Guzman broke out of prison.

    “Mission accomplished: We got him,” Pena Nieto wrote on Twitter.

    (SD-Agencies)