Anew Netflix show tells the story of Griselda Blanco, who ran one of the most profitable cartels in history
Having branded herself “the baddest bitch to ever take abreath”, Griselda Blanco certainly carved out an intimidating reputation throughout her life. Despite being barely 5ft tall, the diminutive “La Madrina” was an ambitious, debauched and brutal Colombian cartel boss, who ruled the £1.5billion drug trade in Florida for over three decades. Her lethal blend of charm and savagery helped her navigate between family and business, and she became notorious for her capacity for violence as she made her mark as awoman in aman’s world.
Having committed her first murder at 11, and orchestrated the deaths of her three husbands, she claimed to be responsible for hundreds of contract killings in abloody reign of terror across the Magic City –the youngest victim being just two years old –and had people murdered simply because she “didn’t like the way they looked at her”.
“People were so afraid of her and her reputation preceded her wherever she went –Griselda was worse than any of the men that were involved in [the drug trade],” said former homicide detective Nelson Abreu.
Now, as her life is dramatised in Netflix’s new series Griselda –starring Sofia Vergara –we take alook back at her crimes.
MAKING AMURDERER
The daughter of an alcoholic sex worker, Blanco – who was born in apoverty-stricken neighbourhood in Cartagena, Colombia in 1943 –was exposed to an unsavoury lifestyle from an early age. She was just 11 when she kidnapped ayoung boy for ransom, shooting him dead when his wealthy parents didn’t take her threat seriously. This ruthlessness carried her through the years. Some accounts say she became asex worker and pickpocket at the age of 12, and left home the following year to live with pimp Carlos Trujillo. They married and had three sons by the time she was 21, but when their romance soured over business, the pitiless Blanco had him killed.
She soon married cocaine trafficker Alberto Bravo and the couple moved from Colombia to Queens, New York, in the late 1960s. Husband and wife went into business together, importing drugs and setting up alucrative smuggling operation from Colombia to the US with the help of her friend, cartel boss Pablo Escobar. Blanco thought that using female couriers would create less suspicion, and her Colombian underwear factory – which served as alegit front for the illegal activities –would add secret compartments into the bras, knickers and corsets so that mules could smuggle the drugs into the US undetected.
THE GODMOTHER
Her successful operations established Blanco as amajor play
