# La Línea: Shadow of Narco (2020)

> A four-episode Spanish docuseries takes viewers inside La Linea, a beach town turned into Europe's drug trafficking hub, and the officers working to change it.

Canonical page: https://ember.film/tv/90112

## Facts

- Seasons: 1
- Episodes: 4
- Episode runtime: 30 min
- Status: Ended
- Genres: documentary, crime
- Network: Netflix
- Cast: Juan Franco
- TMDB rating: 6.4/10
- IMDb: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt12875794/

## Ember's analysis

- Pacing: brisk
- Intensity: moderate
- Complexity: accessible
- Violence: moderate
- Tone: tense, grim, serious, unsparing

## What critics say

Audiences view the miniseries as mixed, valuing its inside look at the drug trade and the police work against it while finding it uneven in depth.

## Synopsis

La Línea: Shadow of Narco (2020) is a Spanish documentary crime miniseries released on Netflix, presented as a four-episode limited series of roughly thirty-minute installments. Set in La Línea de la Concepción, the beach town on Spain's Andalusian coast that has become one of Europe's principal drug trafficking hubs, the series follows the law enforcement officials determined to change that reality. Rather than a scripted story, its engine is the everyday friction of policing a community where smuggling runs deep, with officers, the town's tensions, and the pressures of enforcement forming the spine of each episode. Juan Franco appears as himself, anchoring the on-camera presence that grounds the investigation in lived experience. The tone is serious, tense and unsparing, with a documentary realism that foregrounds institutional strain and the human cost of the narcotics economy. Viewers who appreciate the cartel documentaries and true crime docuseries in the vein of Narcos and Cartel Land will find the same grim, close-up view of the drug trade, framed around the people trying to hold the line against it.

## Shows like La Línea: Shadow of Narco

- [Victim Number 8 (2018)](https://ember.film/tv/71055)
- [Wrong Side of the Tracks (2022)](https://ember.film/tv/105997)
- [To Catch a Smuggler (2015)](https://ember.film/tv/84886)
- [Cocaine Coast (2018)](https://ember.film/tv/67067)
- [Mr. Good: Cop or Crook? (2022)](https://ember.film/tv/125317)
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- [Drug Squad: Costa del Sol (2019)](https://ember.film/tv/75660)
- [The Challenge: ETA (2020)](https://ember.film/tv/92470)
- [Cocaine Air: Smugglers at 30,000 Ft. (2025)](https://ember.film/tv/196945)

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