Carlos Muñoz Portal, the production's location manager, was murdered in Temascalapa in central Mexico. His murder nearly derailed the entire production over safety concerns.
Alejandro Edda, who portrays El Chapo in the show, attended the real life trial of Joaquin Guzmán (aka El Chapo) in Brooklyn to further refine his character and mannerisms. Guzmán was reportedly extremely excited when he saw Edda in the courtroom.
Many of the songs in the series are Narcocorridos, a popular genre of Norteno Mexican folk music.
The show does not exactly follow the chronologically order of events as they really occurred. For example, in the show, the Symar drug bust happened before Felix's arrest, but in reality Felix was arrested in April 1989 and the Symar drug bust happened in September 1989.
The narration for seasons 1 & 2 is provided by Scoot McNairy (as agent Walt Breslin). In season 3 the narration switches over to Luisa Rubino as La Voz newspaper journalist Andrea Nuñez, whose character is loosely based on award-winning Mexican journalist Adela Navarro Bello.