Abhiroop Das
Created by Scott Gold and Jorge Dorantes, Netflix’s ‘The Gringo Hunters‘ follows a group of elite police officers called the International Liaison Unit, with a very specific purpose: the capture and deportation of international fugitives. The team is spearheaded by the veteran Officer Temo, with Nico, Gloria, Crisanto, Archi, Beto, and Camila joining in to bring criminals to justice. Be it serial killers, child abductors, or crypto-frauds, none seem to escape their grasp.
Things take a turn when Nico succeeds Temo, as he finds himself embroiled in a conspiracy involving forces far beyond his jurisdiction. When the same forces rug-pull his team, he begins his own investigations in secret. Originally titled ‘Los Gringo Hunters,’ the Mexican procedural crime drama series navigates the deep underbelly of the criminal justice system and, as such, finds many parallels with real life, both in the nature of the events and the team that digs through them. SPOILERS AHEAD.
The Gringo Hunters Are Based on a Real Police Unit
The International Liaison Unit, colloquially called the Gringo Hunters are indeed based on a real-life police unit in the Mexican Police Force based in the city of Tijuana, in Baja California, Mexico. Reportedly, the Unit began its operations in 2001 and has since successfully arrested and deported over 1,600 fugitives. These fugitives often escape the country after committing crimes such as homicide, drug trafficking, sexual abuse, and money laundering. The stereotype of Mexico being a safe haven for criminals is a particularly well wrought one, as such ‘The Gringo Hunter’ expertly subverts that notion. Rafael Ley, one of the show’s producers, expressed in an interview with El País that the show is also an attempt to combat the cliché of Mexico being a lawless land.
‘The Gringo Hunter’ dispells the cliché by lasering in on the intricacies of Mexico’s justice systems, and showcasing the competence of its eponymous team. The real-life Unit is known for its subtlety, with undercover operations largely defining its modus operandi. As such, the show features the officers wearing plain attire and driving regular vehicles in order to blend in with their surroundings and carry out their missions cleanly. However, this facet gradually diverges from its real-life counterpart over the course of the story. While the real Unit is known for its swift arrests and deportations, the show’s rendition of the team often finds itself under media attention. Their operations are seldom without problems, as the fugitive usually makes a run for their lives, resulting in elaborate chase sequences which often end in violence.
The Real International Liaison Unit is a Quieter Affair Than Its Reel Counterpart
Prior to the Washington Post report by Kevin Sieff, the Unit largely kept a hushed profile and only interacted with its network of intelligence. However, the piece shed a new light on the intricacies of their work, particularly in the buildup to the arrest of a man named Damion Salinas, an American who was accused of committing murder in California. In Mexico, Damion worked as a barber and was eventually caught by the Unit on March 30, 2022. Although this is the case that made the Gringo Hunters a popular sensation, the show does not draw any direct inspiration from it. Instead, it uses a host of subplots to cover the different kinds of criminal fugitives encountered by the team. As such, the show dramatizes the inner workings of the Unit, often creating action spectacles to add a creative flair to what is otherwise a very low-key process.
While the show never expands on the way the team prosecutes the fugitives, the real-life method is quite sophisticated. Although the Unit works in sync with agencies such as the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security, these forces have no jurisdiction over Mexican territories. As such, instead of arranging a proper extradition process, the Gringo Hunters charge the fugitives with violation of Mexican immigration laws. As such, the criminals are deported efficiently, sparing the team more time to further their efforts towards their next target. This model has been quite successful, and the Unit reportedly averages about 13 successes per month.
The Gringo Hunters Uses Fiction to Dive Deeper Into the World of Crime
Based on Sieff’s report, a number of parallels can be drawn between the real Gringo Hunters and the ones in the show, who are penned by a talented team of writers, comprising Manuel Alcalá, Ana Sofía Clerici, Jorge Dorantes, Augusto Mendoza, Gabriel Nuncio and Gabriela Vidal. Reportedly, the real Unit consisted of 10 men and two women in 2022, and is presently commanded by an officer named Moises. It is possible that Moises is an inspiration for the character of Nico, who serves as the leader of the Gringo Hunters in the show, although their similarities seem to end there. As of writing, the makers have not revealed whether Nico has a real-life counterpart.
A former team member, Abigail Esparza Reyes, might be a vague source of inspiration for the character of Gloria, who is also a prominent figure in the Unit and has a brief stint as the team lead. However, the two follow vastly different trajectories. Abigail died on April 9, 2025, during a shootout in Tijuana, Mexico, while trying to arrest a convicted murderer named Cesar Hernandez, who had escaped during prison transport in Kern County. He was arrested a few days later. While the manner of Abigail’s death doesn’t outright rule out the possibility of her informing Gloria’s character, it puts her closer to another character in the story, namely Temo. He serves as the original leader of the Unit and is the first to uncover the mysteries buried deep within the system.
Soon, Temo probes into some powerful, nefarious figures and has to face dire consequences. The difference between his and Abigail’s circumstances reiterates the fictional nature of the story’s overarching mystery, centered on the conspiracy surrounding Temo and the possible involvement of the police force itself. As such, while the show’s central premise is based on the real-life workings of the International Liaison Unit, both its main plot and cast are at best only vaguely inspired by true events. Instead, it likely follows a fictional narrative, as developed by the writing team of ‘The Gringo Hunter.’
