Escobar's declaration of war killed 30 policemen, and the families of the fallen officers were overwhelmed with grief. In response, Colonel Pizano resigned, and President Gaviria acknowledged that he bore most of the responsibility. To combat Escobar, the president recalled the only man Escobar feared—Colonel Carrillo—to Medellín.
Escobar tracked down Judy's residence, but she had long since left. He interrogated Judy's men, demanding her whereabouts and the location of her laboratory. Meanwhile, Judy arrived at the home of Gilberto, the second-largest drug lord, and tried to persuade him to ally with her to take down Escobar.
The two brothers, who had skillfully concealed the Cali Cartel's drug operations behind the scenes and conceded the New York market to Escobar, believed they should not confront Escobar head-on. Instead, they chose to keep a low profile and use Colonel Carrillo's return to their advantage in dealing with Escobar.
After returning to Medellín to take command, Colonel Carrillo changed his entire modus operandi. He directed his men to combat Escobar in an orderly manner: first, he dispatched large forces to surround Escobar's territory and urinated on Escobar's murals to signal his return.
He then used the deployment of large forces to confuse Escobar's lookouts, tracking and locating each of them. Small teams were subsequently sent to take down the lookouts one by one. Carrillo used the "kill one to warn a hundred" tactic to deter other lookouts from working for Escobar, and had one young boy deliver a bullet to Escobar as a warning. U.S. Detective Peña couldn't understand Carrillo's decision to shoot a child among the lookouts, but he was powerless to stop it and felt deep frustration.
Tata, who also learned of Carrillo's return to Medellín, told Escobar that their current situation was fraught with danger. Escobar reassured her, promising that if things spiraled out of his control, they would leave Colombia.
On another front, Chica continued his relentless search for Marisa, but to no avail. Determined to avenge herself against Escobar, Judy sacrificed her largest laboratory as bait, leaking its location to Escobar while passing the tip to Peña through Bernardo. Colonel Carrillo arranged for his men to seize the laboratory and arrested Escobar's man Gato, but failed to extract Escobar's whereabouts from him.
Murphy was deeply shocked after witnessing Carrillo kill Escobar's men. He called his wife Connie to ease his distress. Escobar had David, the young boy who brought him the bullet, record an interview accusing Carrillo of being a heartless devil who murdered children. He hoped this would create a public outcry against the Colombian government and turn people to his side.