Narcos Best Possible Spinoff Idea After Mexicos Ending

Narcos’ Best Possible Spinoff Idea After Mexico’s Ending

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Narcos: Mexico and the original series have already tackled the drug war in South and Central America. What’s next for Netflix’s drug crime drama?

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Narcos Best Possible Spinoff Idea After Mexicos Ending

Warning: the following contains SPOILERS for Narcos: Mexico.

Narcos: Mexico resolves many of the loose ends of the drug war and narcotics trade across Central and South America in the ‘90s, which leaves little room for the next spinoff to be set in the same area. The original Narcos series covered the rise and fall of the Medellin cartel in Colombia. Meanwhile, the spinoff Narcos: Mexico tackled the Guadalajara, Juarez, Sinaloa, Tijuana, and the other cartels that arose from marijuana trafficking and eventually spawned the biggest players in the cocaine business. From there, the eventual rise of Sinaloa kingpin Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman, the Narcos: Mexico lieutenant who’s become one of the most notorious narcotraficos in history, has already been well-covered by other dramatizations and documentaries.

In short, Narcos has already tackled almost every significant narcotrafico from Central and South America. All six seasons of Narcos provides a bird’s eye view of how marijuana, cocaine, and amphetamines began to spread across the U.S. and the world during the ‘80s and ‘90s. The next Narcos can start in the 2000s but needs to be outside America.

Netflix’s next best possible spinoff is Narcos: Philippines. From 2000 to the present, Philippine drug history parallels Colombia and Mexico in various ways. Here are the key reasons why Netflix should do Narcos: Philippines next.

Philippine Drug History And Policy Is Highly Similar To North And South America

Narcos Best Possible Spinoff Idea After Mexicos Ending

The U.S. government, which has long historical ties with the Republic of the Philippines, had a hand in crafting the Southeast Asian country’s laws and policies. Years before the rise of Pablo Escobar and El Chapo, the Philippine congress enacted the Dangerous Drugs Act of 1972, which contains stipulations against the use and trafficking of marijuana, cocaine, amphetamines, acid, and other organic or synthetic substances similarly banned by the U.S. This wasn’t enough to curb the Filipino illegal drug trade, which continued to thrive throughout the next decades. In response, the government’s Dangerous Drugs Act of 2002 expanded the list of prohibited drugs, imposed harsher penalties, and founded the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency (PDEA). While the PDEA is a well-recognized and heavily-funded agency today, this wasn’t exactly the case in 2002. At the time, although the agency had the full support of the Filipino government, it faced many of the same problems that also stood in the way of the then-new DEA in the earlier episodes and seasons of Narcos: Mexico.

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The rise of methamphetamine, also known as shabu or “poor man’s cocaine” in the Philippines, was a joint effort between local and international drug syndicates, dirty cops and generals, and powerful government officials. Instead of cocaine, the much cheaper methamphetamine has dominated the retail narcotics market in the Philippines for the last couple of decades. In the years following the founding of PDEA, local meth syndicates eschewed the use of warehouses for smaller-scale and more covert kitchen-type meth laboratories inside apartments, condominiums, and private subdivisions.

Filipino-Chinese drug syndicates use local street gangs, including children, to sell meth to users at retail prices. They also use Overseas Filipino Workers (OFWs) as drug mules to ship meth in and out of the country. In 2009, the Philippines became not just a key producer but also a central transshipment point for synthetic drugs in Asia, similar to the growth of marijuana and cocaine trafficking in Narcos: Mexico. By 2010, it was estimated that the Filipino drug trade pulled in an annual $6.4 to $8.4 billion in revenue. And since 2013, according to the PDEA and the Philippine National Police (PNP), elements of the Mexican Sinaloa Cartel have even begun operating in the country – a year before El Chapo was arrested in Mexico.

Narcos: Philippines Reveals A Darker Side Of The Drug War And Market

Narcos Best Possible Spinoff Idea After Mexicos Ending

In 2016, Rodrigo Duterte won the presidency by promising to eradicate methamphetamine through whatever means necessary. Since then, the PNP has killed thousands of confirmed and alleged Filipino drug users and traffickers in a brutal, aggressive, and still ongoing campaign. In 2021, government sources peg the total worth of seized methamphetamine in the Philippines at just a little over $1 billion. This pales in comparison to the fortunes of notorious personalities like El Chapo, Pablo Escobar, and the other billionaire drug lords who amassed $20 to $30 billion in South and Central America in Narcos: Mexico season 3. That being said, Netflix’s Narcos crime drama is more than just about money. Narcos: Philippines presents a much darker side of the global war on drugs.

According to the PNP’s own count, about 8,000 alleged drug suspects were killed during police operations since Duterte assumed the presidency in 2016. However, the Philippine government’s own Commission on Human Rights (CHR), along with various other civil society groups, estimates that the actual death toll of Duterte’s drug war is over triple the police estimate. This is still a small number compared to the Mexican drug war’s death toll of 120,000 and counting. However, what’s notable about the drug-related killings in the Philippines is that the police do most of it. And while police claim that everyone they’ve killed were important drug suspects who either fought back or resisted arrest, subsequent official and unofficial investigations into the Philippine theater of the U.S. drug war reveals the contrary. According to human rights groups, based on evidence such as CCTV and camera phone footage, witness accounts, and other corroborating reports, drug suspects rarely resist arrest, police plant both drugs and guns as evidence to justify executions, mostly small-time pushers or poor people are being killed, and police even follow a quota system that rewards executions.

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Unlike Mexico where cartels and state forces go to war, the Philippine drug war is more of a one-sided massacre of the urban poor. The actions of the PNP are consistent with President Duterte’s aggressive stance on drugs. Meanwhile, shabu continues to flood the streets of Metro Manila and other major Filipino cities. And while some local drug lords have been jailed, the U.S. Department of State estimates that there are 9 Chinese drug cartels behind the ongoing methamphetamine hydrochloride trade in the Philippines. Unlike the now-high profile narcotraficos in the cast of Narcos: Mexico, those behind the Philippine drug trade remain at large. And considering the allegations regarding the government itself being involved in the drug trade, as well as the fact that the Philippines serves as a transshipment point for meth in Asia, the Philippines’ real drug kingpins could be worth tens of billions of dollars. Some even speculate that the highly-publicized killings of low-level users/pushers are meant to cover the tracks of these yet-unidentified kingpins.

Narcos: Philippines Opens The Series’ Doors To The Asian Narcotics Trade

Narcos: Philippines offers a somewhat familiar yet fundamentally darker peek into the realities of the narcotics trade and the overarching reach of the U.S. war on drugs. The situation in the Philippines allows Narcos to continue tackling the geopolitical and socioeconomic implications of the global narcotics trade and state drug policies – from a perspective that’s different from but still inherently connected to South and Central America. Moreover, by using the Philippines as a starting point, the future of Narcos could further explore the narcotics trade across Asia, especially in countries like Myanmar, China, Japan, or Afghanistan. By heading east, Netflix could open up an entirely new and expansive chapter of their highly acclaimed crime drama series.

Link Source : https://screenrant.com/narcos-show-future-spinoff-location-philippines-after-mexico/

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