MIAMI, FLORIDA – Griselda Blanco, also known as ‘The Cocaine Godmother’, was a female drug lord who rivaled the likes of Pablo Escobar and El Chapo. Despite her notorious reputation, she often gets overshadowed by her male counterparts. Sofia Vergara even portrayed her in a Netflix series, highlighting the action-packed and chaotic life of this Queenpin.
Blanco was a key figure in Miami’s underworld during the 1980s, playing a major role in the cocaine industry and gaining a reputation for her violent and ruthless escapades. She was responsible for numerous murders and violent revenge attacks, amassing billions of dollars through her illegal enterprise.
In 1985, she was arrested and charged with conspiracy to manufacture, import, and distribute cocaine, receiving a 15-year sentence. While in prison, she was also charged with multiple counts of first-degree murder. After pleading guilty, she had another 20 years added to her sentence. It is believed that Blanco was responsible for at least 40 murders, if not as many as 200.
Ironically, the method of killing Blanco invented, drive-by motorcycle murders, ultimately led to her own demise. After serving almost two decades in US prisons and being deported back to Colombia, she was gunned down at the age of 69 in Medellin, the same city where she had once risen to power. The professor of international studies at the University of Miami referred to her death as a form of poetic justice, given the countless lives she had taken.
Griselda Blanco’s life and death serve as a reminder of the enduring legacy of violence and crime in the world of drug trafficking. Her story highlights the complex and dangerous nature of the criminal underworld, as well as the ultimate consequences faced by those who choose this path.