'Narcos' Season 3 Spoilers & News: Drug War Escalates; How Dangerous Is The Cali Cartel? Los Pepes To Return In S3?

If viewers think that the next seasons of "Narcos" will be less thrilling because of the absence of Pablo Escobar, then they could be in for a big surprise. "Narcos" Season 3, which is expected to begin streaming on Netflix in late 2017, will center on the Cali Cartel. The story involving the Rodriguez Orejuela brothers will be a lot more complicated, as the cartel was very much part of the system that seemingly made their operations legitimate.

"Pablo was protected by the people who loved him and Cali was protected by a political and economic system that they had rather ingeniously built," Eric Newman, "Narcos" showrunner, said via The Hollywood Reporter. "It's a different kind of villain," he added.

The Cali Cartel became well-connected worldwide, thus the group was able to build a drug empire that impacted the flourishing of the cocaine market in the 90s and beyond. PBS cites that the Cali Cartel patterned their operations the same way as terrorists, where a network of cells operate independently under one umbrella. The cartel also supposedly had lawyers, businessmen, engineers and other experts in their employ. "Narcos" Season 3 is expected to depict these stories to show how Cali Cartel became a dangerous group.

In Cali, revenge is tenfold. #Narcos pic.twitter.com/KRrNr7TmnJ

— Narcos (@NarcosNetflix) October 1, 2016

Meanwhile, it's likely that viewers of "Narcos" will see the rebirth of Los Pepes in succeeding seasons. As seen in "Narcos" Season 2, the Cali Cartel used the vigilante group Los Pepes to eliminate the competition -- Pablo Escobar and his Medellin cartel. Small Wars Journal reports that Los Pepes briefly disbanded after Escobar's death because their mission was supposedly over.

However, they were allegedly reinstated by the Colombian government and even grew bigger as the group provided intelligence about the drug trade. Los Pepes is also believed to have penetrated the Mexican drug trade, which "Narcos" is expected to explore in Season 4. Will Mexico's El Chapo figure in succeeding seasons next?

Stay tuned to this site for more news on "Narcos." In the meantime, learn about the groups that took over the drug trade after Pablo Escobar died in this video below.