Pablo Escobar’s ex-lover loses her lawsuit against Netflix’s ‘Narcos’

At left is a “Narcos” promotional shot of Pablo Escobar as portrayed by actor Wagner Moura; at right, Virginia Vallejo, who lost her lawsuit.

The hit Netflix show “Narcos” didn’t steal copyrighted material from a book written by the onetime lover of Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, a Miami federal judge has ruled.

The judge on Friday dismissed a lawsuit filed by Virginia Vallejo, who claimed the popular show unlawfully stole copyrighted material from a memoir chronicling her romance with the infamous cartel leader.

The decision by U.S. District Judge Rodney Smith ends the lawsuit filed last year by Vallejo, once a well-known television journalist in Colombia who wrote the book “Loving Pablo, Hating Escobar.”

Vallejo also claimed that “Narcos” stole her themes of power and manipulation — and the struggle between good and evil. Smith didn’t buy it.

“Themes of power and manipulation would be expected in any work about a ruthless criminal who rises to become one of the richest men in the world, as would themes of men who are both good and evil,” Smith wrote in his 17-page order.

Vallejo had filed her lawsuit again Netflix, Narcos Productions and Gaumont Television USA.

The first two seasons of the popular Netflix show chronicled the rise and fall of Escobar from a petty criminal to the leader of the powerful and violent Medellin cartel, which flooded the United States with cocaine in the 1980s and 1990s. Colombian military forces shot and killed Escobar in 1993, yet his notoriety has remained high because of a slew of television shows, documentaries and movies.

Vallejo later sold the rights to her memoir, and the story was made into the 2018 film “Loving Pablo.” It starred Penelope Cruz as Vallejo, and Javier Bardem as Escobar.

Viewers of “Narcos” will remember the character molded after Vallejo: the national TV journalist named Valeria Velez, who became Escobar’s lover and helped engineer his public persona as a Robin Hood-like figure in Colombia.

Vallejo sued, saying at least two specifics scenes were stolen directly from her book.

The first: a sex scene between Escobar and the character. In the memoir, Vallejo recalls that Escobar took her to a penthouse, blindfolded her and caressed her body with a revolver. Later, after he handcuffed her by the ankle to the chair, they spent time looking at a cache of Escobar’s fake passports, then went to the bed to have sex.

The Netflix scene showed the woman tied to a bed while Escobar caresses her with a gun in a much more direct sexual manner. During the scene, she agrees to help him get elected to Colombia’s congress.

“There is no dialogue that has been copied, the settings are different, the feel of the scenes are different, and how the scenes play out are different,” Smith wrote in his final order.

Vallejo also claimed “Narcos” infringed on her copyright in depicting a scene in which Escobar meets with Colombian guerrilla leader Ivan Marino Ospina, who later was killed in an assault on a judicial palace.

“Any details of the meeting ... are, however, historical fact,” Narcos’ lawyers Scott Ponce, Rebecca Canamero and Louis Petrich wrote to the judge.