The Shocking True Story of Griselda

The Shocking True Story of Griselda

Welcome to MsMojo, and today we’re discussing the rise and fall of Griselda Blanco.

Early Life & Crimes

Griselda Blanco Restrepo was born on February 14, 1943, in Cartagena, Colombia. Growing up in the slums of Medellín, she allegedly endured abuse from the boyfriends of her mother Ana Blanco, a sex worker with substance use disorder, as well as from her clients. Surrounded by crime and violence, young Griselda also reportedly fell into this line of work, in addition to committing petty crimes and pickpocketing to provide for herself. By some accounts, she escalated to kidnapping a boy close to her age from a wealthy neighborhood and killing him when his family refused to pay the ransom.

The Queen of Queens

Only a couple years later, Blanco met and married her first husband Carlos Trujillo who got her involved in his business of forging IDs/documents and smuggling immigrants over the border. Together, the couple had three children – sons Osvaldo, Uber and Dixon, and immigrated to New York, to continue counterfeiting.

After separating, Blanco married her second husband/business partner Alberto Bravo, a drug smuggler who got her into the trafficking trade. They started with marijuana but chose to move cocaine, which turned out to be a more lucrative operation. The highly in-demand substance was also easier to transport, so Blanco crafted undergarments that would seamlessly conceal it.

She’d successfully built an empire and business was doing more than good. In 1974, she also managed to evade being captured during Operation Banshee, a joint operation between the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and the New York Police Department (NYPD).

The Miami Drug War

In the late 1970s, Blanco set up shop in Miami, Florida. She and the Medellín Cartel were at the center of the city’s ongoing drug-related violence. On July 11, 1979, two men were publicly murdered in what became known as the Dadeland Massacre, marking the beginning of the “Miami drug war.”

Griselda killed Alberto Bravo in Bogota in 1975. In 1978, Griseldo married Darío Sepúlveda, a sicario working for her, with whom she had one child the same year. As a fan of mobster movies, particularly “The Godfather,” she named her fourth son Michael Corleone Blanco. In 1983, Sepúlveda left Blanco and when the two couldn’t come to a custody agreement, he kidnapped Michael. She allegedly had him killed and their son witnessed everything.

The Fall of the Cocaine Queenpin

After over a decade spent investigating, DEA agent Bob Palombo finally caught up with the elusive “Godmother” in her Irvine, California home on February 17, 1985. He triumphantly placed her under arrest and she was charged with conspiracy to “manufacture, import, and distribute cocaine,” resulting in a 15-year sentence. Behind bars, Griselda concocted a bonkers scheme to have her cohorts kidnap John F. Kennedy Jr., in hopes of using the leverage to secure her release. Of course, the plan was unsuccessful.

She was also later charged with three counts of first-degree murder. The prosecution had a key witness, Jorge “Rivi” Ayala, a former hitman for Blanco, lined up to testify. However, he lost credibility after he was caught up in a scandal involving two secretaries who worked for the state attorney’s office.

In 1998, Blanco received a sentence of 20 years after she pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree murder. However, for health reasons, she was released in 2004 and deported to her native Columbia. On September 3, 2012, the 69-year-old seemingly retired Griseldo Blanco was killed in front of a butcher shop in Medellín. She was assassinated using the same technique she had become notorious for ordering: in a drive-by motorcycle shooting.

In the Media

The 2006 release of “Cocaine Cowboys” introduced the mainstream to the prolific Griselda Blanco, followed up by a 2008 sequel. Her youngest and only surviving son Michael continues to appear in documentaries and TV specials about his mother’s legacy. He even joined the cast of VH1’s reality show “Cartel Crew.” Welsh actress Catherine Zeta-Jones starred as Blanco in Lifetime’s TV movie “Cocaine Godmother.”

For years, a Blanco biopic with Jennifer Lopez in the role has been in the works. The most recent portrayal is Netflix’s limited series “Griselda” starring Sofia Vergara, which hits the streamer on Jan 25, 2024. But according to Michael, the source material came from conversations between him and the producers that included “private details from his artistic literary work about his family’s life.” He was not compensated for the material and filed a lawsuit on January 19 ahead of the series debut.

What did you think is the best on screen portrayal of Griselda Blanco? Did you watch “Griselda”? Let us know in the comments below.