“Pablo actually preferred to have multiple people smuggling his drugs and using different methods. According to one book, he’s actually the first cartel leader who gave up on trying to be “perfect” in smuggling things into the US and realized that even if the authorities found half of what he smuggled in, he’d still be making a profit.
“For simplicity, I think they just created The Lion’s character to help tell the story. It made it easier to say that The Lion was running Pablo’s operation on the US side of things and then for them to show the Cali Cartel approaching him to “switch him over” to their side.
“In reality, the takeover of the Cali Cartel wasn’t quite as smooth as implied. But since the Medellín Cartel basically fell apart without Pablo, most of the dealers just bought from the Cali Cartel instead.”
In an article for The Telegraph back in September 2016 Escobar’s son Sebastián Marroquín criticised the series for overdramaticising some elements of the truth.
Narcos is available to watch on Netflix now
