Narcos star Pedro Pascal says show can’t continue unless its cast and crew are safe

The star of the Netflix hit show Narcos, Pedro Pascal, has said the series can’t continue unless its cast and crew can be kept safe after one of its location scouts was shot dead in Mexico.

Carlos Mu?oz Portal, 37, was found dead in his car earlier this month with his body riddled with bullets after he had been scouting locations for the show’s fourth series.

Mr Pascal, who plays DEA agent Javier Pe?a, said producers would now need to ‘figure out’ a way to protect the show’s staff.

Speaking with TMZ  in LAX airport, Mr Pascal described Mr Mu?oz Portal’s death as “tragic”.

Asked if the show could continue, he responded: “Well they can’t do it if it’s not safe. We are talking about lives. If they want to do it they’ll figure it out in a safe way”.

Mr Mu?oz Portal, whose other credits include the James Bond film Spectre and Fast & Furious, was discovered in the remote town of Temascalapa, in Mexico state, on Monday 11 September.

Any motive for his death is currently unclear and no witnesses have yet come forward. The area Mr Mu?oz Portal was working in is a violent region of central Mexico, around 40 miles from Mexico City.

Following the death, the brother of Pablo Escobar, Roberto De Jesus Escobar Gaviria, suggested the show should hire hitmen of its own to continue filming its fourth series.

Narcos, which originally chronicled the rise and fall of the notorious Colombian drug lord, Pablo Escobar, has been one of Netflix's standout original series since it debuted in 2015.

The third series was released on the streaming service this month and focused on DEA agent Javier Pe?a’s crusade against another of Colombia’s infamous criminal organisations, the Cali Cartel. The series ended with agent Pe?a about to turn his efforts to the Mexician drug cartels.

Mexico currently is in the grip of a chronic crime epidemic fuelled by powerful, ultra-violent drug cartels and criminal gangs.

Nationwide murders hit a record high in May, according to the latest official data, with 2,186 homicides. At an average of 70 a day, it is the most the country has suffered since it began keeping track 20 years ago.

Since Mexico deployed the military to fight organized crime in 2006, a wave of bloodshed has left more than 200,000 people dead or missing, as rival cartels wage war on each other and the army.

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