Anais Gutierrez
Netflix’s ‘Narcos’ location scout was killed in Mexico. Carlos Muñoz Portal was looking for places to film the next season of the show. His body was found in a rural area of Mexico.
The third season of ‘Narcos’ premiered on Netflix on September 1.
‘Narcos’ getting scarily real
A location manager who worked on ‘Narcos‘ and movies like ‘Spectre’ was shot and killed earlier in the week while scouting an area in rural Mexico.
Carlos Muñoz Portal was found murdered Monday inside his vehicle. Portal was scouting solo at the time of his murder, which occurred near the Temascalapa municipality.
The veteran location manager often worked with Hollywood productions that filmed in Mexico. Including ‘Fast & Furious’, ‘Apocalypto’, ‘Man on Fire’, ‘Sicario’ and its upcoming sequel ‘Soldado’.
A friend of Portal’s told El Pais that the location scout had journeyed to an area near the border of the state of Hidalgo – which has Mexico’s highest murder rate, with 182 murders in July alone – to take photographs of potential filming sites for the series.
“We are aware of the passing of Carlos Muñoz Portal, a well-respected scout, and send our condolences to his family,” Netflix said in a statement.
“The facts surrounding his death are still unknown as authorities continue to investigate.”
As the friend told the Mexican newspaper, a stranger photographing the area likely raised the suspicions of locals.
“Maybe they thought he was collecting information and they started tracking him in a car.”
A police spokesperson said of Portal’s death, “We do not know if he was in Hidalgo and from there they followed him or if he was in the state of Mexico and tried to flee towards Hidalgo.”
They added that authorities had no witnesses due to the remote location of the murder.
‘Narcos’
‘Narcos’ is a crime drama about the gritty wars of the 1980s between drug kingpins and law enforcement agencies, set mostly in Colombia.
The first three seasons focused on Pablo Escobar and the Cali Cartel in that country. But the ending of the third season heavily hinted that the show’s fourth season would turn toward Mexico.
Season four is said to be focused on the origins of Mexico’s infamous Juarez cartel, but Portal’s tragic death has raised uncertainty over whether production will continue in Mexico or move back to Colombia.
Mexico is in the midst of its deadliest year. According to Al Jazeera, Mexican authorities recorded more than 2,200 murders nationwide in June. This is the highest for a single month in 20 years.
Source: Newsweek
