Before his brazen jailbreak last year, notorious drug boss Joaquín "El Chapo" Guzmán instructed his lawyers to trademark his name, giving Mexican authorities their first clue he wanted to make a film of his life, local media said on Tuesday.
The world's most wanted drug kingpin, Guzmán was recaptured last week in northwest Mexico and is now back in the same maximum security prison be escaped from in July via a tunnel that burrowed right up into his cell.
During his previous 17 month stint behind bars, Guzmán asked his lawyers to begin the process of trade-marking his name with the Mexican Institute of Industrial Property (IMPI), Mexican journalist Carlos Loret de Mola said. However, IMPI denied his request.
IMPI could not immediately be reached for comment.
According to documents seen by Reuters, IMPI rejected two applications to trademark the names "Joaquín El Chapo Guzmán" and "El Chapo Guzmán" in 2011, filed by Alejandrina Gisselle Guzmán, who is believed to be his daughter. The applications - for clothing and apparel, not movies - were denied on the grounds that Guzmán was a wanted man.
A search on the IMPI website shows a brand under the name "El Chapo," first registered in 2006.
Local media did not explain how authorities knew at this time that Guzmán might be seeking a trademark to make a film.
Mexico has said it plans to extradite Guzmán, head of the Sinaloa drug cartel, to the United States, where he is wanted for exporting hundreds of tonnes of cocaine, methamphetamine and heroin across the border.
Mexico has received guarantees from a court in Texas that if it receives Guzmán as part of his extradition, it will not seek the death penalty against him, the Attorney General Office's head of International Proceedings, José Manuel Merino, said in a newspaper interview on Tuesday.
He added that the Mexican government will present a "diplomatic note" to U.S. authorities so that no other U.S. jurisdiction will be able to seek the death penalty, which is outlawed in Mexico, against the extradited drug lord.
