Narcos (season 3)

Season 3 chronicles the DEA's hunt for the Cali Cartel leaders after Escobar's death in 1993. With Escobar out of the way, business for the Cali Cartel is booming, with new markets in the United States and elsewhere. To everyone's surprise, Gilberto Rodríguez Orejuela, the leader of the Cali cartel, announces that within 6 months, the cartel will leave the cocaine business entirely to focus on legal business interests. The decision is met with mixed reactions within the cartel. In the meantime, DEA agent Javier Peña continues to fight against cartel leaders, alongside partnered agents Chris Feistl and Daniel Van Ness.

The cartel's presence in New York City is headed by José "Chepe" Santacruz-Londoño, who goes by the alias "Victor Crespo". Chepe guns down a Dominican gang in Queens when he finds they are buying ether for cocaine production. However, a subsequent explosion in a drug lab causes Cuban-American journalist Manuel de Dios Unanue to investigate. Chepe meets with Manuel and proposes to help him achieve his American dream; when Manuel refuses, Chepe kills him. In Mexico, Hélmer "Pacho" Herrera and his brother Alvaro partner with Amado Carrillo Fuentes, the leader of the Juárez Cartel.

Feistl and Van Ness begin their investigation by raiding an office building owned by Chilean banker and money launderer Guillermo Pallomari but find little information. The two follow Pallomari to Gilberto's location in Cali and alert Peña. The police raid the house the next day and capture Gilberto when he tries to hide, avoiding the corrupt police in the process. With Gilberto in prison, his brother Miguel Rodríguez Orejuela becomes the leader of the cartel, and has Pallomari and his family hide in a safehouse.

Peña investigates the cartel's money laundering operations, which is led by Franklin Jurado, a Colombian banker. Peña meets with Jurado's American wife Christina but fails to get her cooperation in arresting Jurado. He tails Jurado in Curaçao and arrests him with help from the Dutch Caribbean Police Force, but Jurado refuses to testify until he sees his wife. Christina is kidnapped and held hostage by the FARC guerillas, but Peña rescues her with the help of Don Berna and the right-wing Castaño brothers. Fearing that Jurado will testify against them, the Cali Cartel has him killed in prison.

The Cali Cartel begins to slowly weaken with pressure from the Colombian police, the DEA and the North Valley Cartel. Jorge Salcedo, a rather reluctant member of the Cali Cartel, becomes an informant for the DEA. During the Cali Fair, the North Valley Cartel attacks Miguel at a salsa party and Pacho Herrera in Mexico; the two escape unharmed. Impressed by Salcedo's actions that helped save his life, Miguel promotes Salcedo as his head of security, replacing his son David Rodriguez, not knowing that Salcedo is secretly working alongside the DEA.

Salcedo tips Van Ness and Feistl of Miguel's location, but Peña insists that the operation is done entirely legally. After a lengthy search, Van Ness and Feistl discover open air space in the wall that they highly suspect Miguel is hiding in and they start to bash down the wall, but they are stopped when the head of the Cali Attorney General's office walks in and declares their actions illegal. After the close call on Miguel, David becomes increasingly suspicious of Salcedo and Enrique, Salcedo's right-hand man. Miguel and David torture Enrique who confesses that Salcedo is an informant. David and Miguel are about to kill Salcedo when an American pager planted by Salcedo goes off in Enrique's pocket. Convinced he is the rat, Miguel has Enrique killed, but David remains highly suspicious of Salcedo, and continues to dig for evidence on Salcedo's disloyalty.

Salcedo tips off the DEA again on Miguel's new location, and tells them he will convince Miguel to move to a safer location and advises the arrest happen during the transport. Before Miguel can leave the house, David finds video proof of Salcedo walking into Van Ness and Feistl's apartment and alerts his father. Salcedo is almost killed by Miguel but he flees before the raid team can capture him. Miguel is arrested when he tries to flee his house. With the Rodriguez brothers gone, Pacho kills the North Valley leaders and surrenders to the police with Chepe. David sends the sicario Navegante to kill Pallomari, but is killed by Salcedo and the DEA. Pallomari agrees to testify in exchange for immunity for himself and his family. Both Salcedo and Pallomari testify against the cartel, and disappear in the witness protection program. David is killed by the North Valley Cartel after failing to kill Salcedo's family.

In court, Pallomari reveals the Cali Cartel has illegally funded the presidential campaign of Ernesto Samper and have bribed multiple politicians. While a political scandal ensues, the Rodriguez brothers are extradited to the United States and receive lengthy sentences. Pacho is killed in prison by the North Valley and Chepe is murdered by the AUC leaders when he fails to ally himself with them. With the last of the Colombian cartels gone, Peña realizes the drug trade has moved to Mexico, where the trade is played differently. The final episode ends with him and his father Chucho by the Rio Grande, where they watch an armed group smuggle drugs on a boat.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the third season holds an approval rating of 97% based on 23 reviews, with an average rating of 7.46/10. The site's critical consensus reads, "Narcos continues to evolve in its third season, drawing on historical details to take viewers on a thoroughly gripping -- and unsettlingly timely -- journey into darkness."[2] On Metacritic, season three holds a score of 78 out of 100, based on 9 critics, indicating "generally favorable reviews".[3]

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