Mexican location scout Carlos Muñoz Portal was shot to death in a violent region in central Mexico Monday while scouting for season four of Netflix’s hit show “Narcos.” The seasoned scout, who worked for Stacy Perskie’s Mexico City-based production company Redrum, has a slew of high profile credits to his name, including, “Sicario,” “Spectre,” “Fast & Furious” and “Apocalypto.” 
 
 Netflix issued the following statement: “We are aware of the passing of Carlos Muñoz Portal, a well-respected location scout, and send our condolences to his family. The facts surrounding his death are still unknown as authorities continue to investigate. 
 
 Several Mexican journalists posted photos along with the news. 
 
 Muñoz’s bullet-riddled body and car were found in a remote area near San Bartolo Actopan in the state of Mexico near the borders of Hidalgo state, which is said to have one of the highest murder rates in Mexico. In July, 182 cases of homicide were reported in the densely populated state, a ratio of 12.2 for every 100,000 inhabitants. 
 
 According to local reports, authorities have had trouble piecing together the circumstances that led to his killing, given the dearth of witnesses. 
 
 Netflix’s season 4 is said to be exploring the origins of Mexico’s infamous Juarez cartel just as season 3 focused on the rise and fall of Colombia’s Cali cartel and heralded the shift of the drug wars to Mexico. 
 
 Munoz’s murder raises doubts on whether the production will continue in Mexico or move back to Colombia where it began. Such a decision would imperil hundreds of jobs that the series’ production would have generated in Mexico. 
 
 (photo: “Narcos” from Netflix) 

 
 
 Netflix recently released Season 3 of “Narcos,” which picks up after the death of Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar, with DEA agent Javier Peña (Pedro Pascal) working to dismantle another cartel. (Juan Pablo Gutierrez/Netflix) 
 
 Carlos Muñoz Portal, a location manager for the popular Netflix series “Narcos,” was reportedly fatally shot in rural Mexico last week while scouting filming sites for the show’s fourth season, according to Spanish-language news sites. 
 
 Muñoz’s vehicle was found amid cactuses Monday on a remote, unnamed dirt road in Temascalapa, a town in the state of Mexico; inside the car was Muñoz’s body, which had several gunshot wounds, El Pais reported under a headline that translates to “Violence in Mexico surpasses fiction.” 
 
 A friend of Muñoz told the newspaper the 37-year-old had been driving to the south-central part of the country to photograph possible filming locations. The friend speculated Muñoz might have drawn unwanted attention to himself as a foreigner with a camera. The region is near the border with the state of Hidalgo, known for its high homicide rate — 182 were reported last year, according to El Pais. 
 
 Because of the rural area, authorities have had trouble finding witnesses, a spokesman for the attorney general of the state of Mexico told the newspaper. 
 
 Netflix released a statement acknowledging Muñoz’s death but did not report further details. 
 
 “We are aware of the passing of Carlos Muñoz Portal, a well-respected scout, and send our condolences to his family,” the company said in a statement to Deadline. “The facts surrounding his death are still unknown as authorities continue to investigate.” 
 
 “Narcos” debuted on Netflix in 2015, and its first two seasons — following drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, his cocaine empire, and his violent clashes with politicians, criminals and the Drug Enforcement Administration — were set in Colombia. The show’s third season, which began airing earlier this month, focuses on the Cali Cartel, also of Colombia. 
 
 In an interview with the Hollywood Reporter last September, “Narcos” showrunner Eric Newman hinted strongly the show’s fourth season would be moving to Mexico. 
 
 “Cali was the cartel that really utilized the smuggling routes through Mexico and the Mexican heroin smugglers who were already incredibly successful,” Newman told the entertainment news site then. “They very much got the Mexicans into the cocaine business, so there is sort of a natural evolution there. As to whether I would move directly into Mexico, it’s certainly a possibility.” 
 
 According to his IMDb profile, Muñoz worked in the television and film industry for more than a decade, starting as a location assistant in the mid-2000s for movies including “Man on Fire,” “The Legend of Zorro” and “Apocalypto.” His social media pages indicated that he attended the University of the Americas in his native Puebla, Mexico, about 80 miles southeast of Mexico City — and, outside of the film industry, that he was an avid tennis and soccer fan and landscape photographer. 
 
 Muñoz’s last Instagram post was made last Saturday from an open field in Puebla. It was captioned, simply, “Home.” 
 
 Read more: 
 
 In Mexico, the price of America’s hunger for heroin 
 
 A Texas cop took a side gig with drug cartels, feds say 
 
 Mexican narcos drop bodies, and warnings, from the skies
– Fact has outpaced fiction for the popular Netflix series Narcos, about the Colombian drug trade. On Monday, Carlos Muñoz Portal, a location manager for the show, was shot to death while scouting filming sites in rural Mexico, Variety reports. Muñoz's bullet-riddled body was found on a remote country road in the town of Temascalapa, near the state of Hidalgo, one of the most violent places in the country. 182 homicides were reported in the region last year. Due to a lack of witnesses, police are having difficulty finding leads in the case. Narco's first three seasons were shot in Colombia, but producers have hinted that they would be shooting season four in Mexico to follow the evolution of the cocaine trade from Colombia to that country, the Washington Post reports. Muñoz, 37, a Mexican native, worked on such films as Man on Fire and The Legend of Zorro during his more than 10-year career. He had gone to the town of Temascalapa to shoot photographs and a friend speculates his camera could have attracted unwanted attention.