Narcos — Season 3: Story

After two seasons of exhilarating drama, we once again set our screens with racing hearts, as we prepare to delve deeper into the story of the narcotrafficking-clad Columbia of 90s with Season 3 of Narcos.

With Pablo Escobar gone, Cali Cartel becomes the new big thing in town. To put it precisely, Cali Cartel becomes the biggest narcotrafficking group after the fall of Medellin Cartel in 1993.

However, Cali Cartel is different from Medellin Cartel in the sense that while Pablo preferred a huge show, Cali Cartel does its operations low-key. The Cartel brothers like to call themselves the ‘Gentlemen of Cali’, though it’s far from the truth.

Coming to the main characters of the season, we have about nine to ten people, as mentioned below-

Partners of Cali Cartel

1. Gilberto Rodriguez — The founder and leader of Cali Cartel

2. Miguel Rodriguez

The Rodríguez-Orejuela brothers are the drug lords in Columbia, who trade Marijuana, Cocaine and later Heroin

3. Pacho Herrera — Earlier just a member, he is later made a partner in the Cartel. He handles the operations in Mexico.

4. Chepe or ‘Crespo’- He handles the operations in New York.

DEA Agents

Chris Feistl and Daniel Van Ness

Javier Peña

Others

David Rodriguez — Miguel Rodriguez’s son and second antagonist

Salcedo Jorg e- a reluctant member of the Cartel, and later, head of security for Miguel Rodriguez

Guillermo Pallomari — the Cartel’s accountant

Story

• Gilberto Rodriguez, the leader of the Cali Cartel holds a massive party inviting every single unit of the Cali Cartel and announces a surrender plan after 6 last months of free business (in which they would increase the business triple-fold). Not everyone is happy with the decision.
• However, DEA, an American agency, arrests Gilberto way before the 6 months with the help of Columbian police.
• The Cali Cartel has bought half of the Columbian authorities and is protected by economic and political systems in Colombia. He is affirmative that he’ll get out soon.
• Gilberto refuses to stay in the prison initially, but no one is able to save him from that right away. He is forced to accept the prison life after his son, a lawyer by profession, gets involved and tell him that the best thing to do is negotiate with the government- serve 3 years in the prison, give up the illegal business entirely, and start afresh after that.
• While Gilberto reluctantly agrees to the idea, the plan isn’t welcomed by the other 3 partners, especially Miguel Rodriguez.
• Miguel becomes the new leader of the Cartel and gains the confidence to work differently from Gilberto.
• Miguel and Pacho are attacked by an enemy group- Northern Valley Cartel. The security chief and his family are brutally killed when Miguel finds out that he had tried running away. Salcedo Jorge, a much-appreciated security person (who wants to get away from the Cartel) is forced to take up the role of the new security chief for Miguel Rodriguez. His son, David Rodriguez, doesn’t approve of Jorge though.
• The murder of the former security head and his family scares Jorge and he begins to plan out an escape. He risks contacting the DEA and becomes an informant for them. He leaks to them information about the whereabouts of Miguel Rodriguez in a hope to get out of Columbia and to the US.
• DEA fails to arrest Miguel the first time they get information from Jorge, being restricted at the last moment due to some legal issues. This puts Jorge’s life in danger. However, Miguel doesn’t suspect him, even against his son Davis’s suspicions. Enrique, another security person is suspected to be a rat and killed.
• Meanwhile, Gilberto begins convincing Pacho and Chepe about the new surrender plan, after seeing his brother Miguel’s aversion to the idea.

For this operation, Peña has to team up with Don Berna (on condition that Berna would be notified when the police came for him) and right-wing Castaño brothers.

• For a second attempt at arresting Miguel, DEA teams up with Jorge and plans to catch Miguel while he’s on road. Unfortunately, at just the right moment for him, David finds out that Jorge is the rat leaking information to DEA, and Jorge is almost killed by them. The DEA realizes this just in time and breaks into Miguel’s house where it saves Jorge. Miguel Rodriguez is arrested.
• Pacho and Chepe surrender to the police after Miguel’s arrest, but only after Pacho has shed some blood.
• The four pillars of the cartel have a good time in the prison together. They have a plan and support of the Columbian system.
• While the four of them are in prison, Peña does a finding and realises that they are free even in the prison. In the last two episodes, Agent Peña finds out that the presidential campaign was funded by the Cali Cartel, thus, the Cartel partners would never run out of business even in jail as long as the president runs in power.
• After the arrest of the 4 partners, there’s still one person left to be arrested- Guillermo Pallomari, the Cartels’ accountant, who goes into hiding as soon as he realizes he’s in danger. David is looking out for him too.
• Jorge puts his life in danger once again and helps the DEA find Pallomari. Navegante, the Cartel’s sicario, is also sent by David to catch Pallomari. They both happen to reach Pallomari’s house at the same time. While the DEA goes in and arrests Pallomari, Navegante finds Jorge and is almost about to kill him when Jorge picks up a gun for the first time and kills him instead.
• Pallomari agrees to testify against the Cartel in exchange for immunity for him and his family under the Witness Protection Program.
• Peña finds out about the 6-billion donation to the presidential campaign for Ernesto Samper. He makes public the news of the President’s ties with the cartel. Though it does not bring any major changes, the true word about it goes out to the public, and Peña settles for that, seeing as that is his only option.
• Fate of the Cartel partners: Chepe gets himself released from the prison to partner with new people (the AUC leaders) and build another empire, which doesn’t go quite well. He gets killed. Pacho meets a similar fate in the prison itself when he is killed by the North-Valley brothers. The Rodriguez- Orejuela brothers are extradited to the US, which means that they serve imprisonment for a lifetime.
• David is killed by the North Valley Cartel.

The season ends with Peña watching a new set of narcotraffickers smuggling drugs by water, as he finds himself unable to do anything about it. He is given another opportunity for the next season, that is to catch the drug lords in Mexico.