El Chapo’s Daughter Says He Visited Her in California

The daughter of infamous drug kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman said her father visited her twice in California while he was a fugitive, according to an interview released Friday.

Rosa Isela Guzman Ortiz, who lives in California in a house her father helped her buy, said in the July 2015 interview with the Guardian, published on Friday, that her father visited her in the U.S. twice, even though he was wanted by both Mexican and U.S. authorities.

Asked about how he managed to cross the border, she said she wondered the same.

“I asked him the same, believe me,” Guzman Ortiz said.

El Chapo, known as “the most powerful drug lord in the world,” escaped a high-security prison in July 2015, tunneling from his shower to a nearby field. He was recaptured in a raid in January.

Guzman Ortiz—who runs a chain of carwashes, beauty salons and cafes in California—also defended her father against criminal accusations, saying he has been unfairly targeted by the Mexican government.

“My dad is not a criminal. The government is guilty,” she said.