| Griselda Blanco | |
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 Griselda Blanco mug shot.
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| Born | February 15, 1943 Medellín, Colombia |
| Alias(s) | "La Madrina" |
| Charge(s) | drug trafficker |
| Penalty | 20 years in prison |
| Status | released deport to Colombia. |
| Occupation | unknown |
Griselda Blanco (b. February 15, 1943), also known as la Madrina, the Godmother, the Black Widow and the Cocaine Queen of Miami, was a drug lord and pioneer in the Miami based cocaine drug trade and underworld. Blanco was known for her absolute ruthlessness and sociopathic behavior.
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Early life and career
Blanco is believed to have been born in 1943 in Medellín, Colombia to a poor family, and eventually became a child prostitute at the age of 12. She emigrated to the United States and settled in Queens, New York City, in the mid-1970s, where she began her career in drug smuggling. After being indicted in New York, Blanco fled to Miami, where she expanded her operations and developed a reputation for being bloodthirsty, eccentric and a ruthless businesswoman. At her zenith, Blanco's personal fortune was estimated to be over half a billion dollars. She was well known for absolute extravagance and was a regular collector of fine art and jewels. She was known to favor Haute couture. Blanco is widely credited with much of the drug-related violence known as the Cocaine Cowboy Wars that plagued Miami in the late 1970s and early 1980s, when cocaine supplanted marijuana. Ironically, Blanco's violent business style brought much unwanted government scrutiny to south Florida, leading to the demise of her organization and the free-wheeling, high profile Miami drug scene of those times. She is thought to have masterminded over 200 murders during this time in the Dade County area in Miami, Florida.
Family life
Blanco was married three times and is believed to be a Black Widow, responsible for all three of her husbands' deaths by professional contract killers. She had four sons, the youngest of whom she named after the fictional character Michael Corleone played by Al Pacino in the movie trilogy The Godfather. Blanco's three eldest sons were eventually deported to Colombia and murdered shortly after their arrival.
Downfall
Blanco fled from the authorities in Miami and relocated in California, where she was later captured by the Drug Enforcement Administration.Somewhere around this time, she switched her base of operations to Irvine, CA, where she lived like an ordinary housewife with her youngest son, Michael Corleone Sepulveda. In 1985, Blanco was arrested in Irvine on narcotics trafficking charges by the man who had tracked her relentlessly for years, D.E.A. Agent Bob Palumbo. Blanco was extradited to Florida. She spent nearly 20-years in prisons in the United States and was released on June 6, 2004, then immediately deported back to Colombia. Blanco's current status is unknown.
Publications
Books
- Smitten, Richard. (1993). The Godmother: The True Story of the Hunt for the Most Bloodthirsty Female Criminal in Our Time, Griselda Blanco. Pocket Books. ISBN 0671701932
Videos
- Blanco was featured in the 2006 documentary film called Cocaine Cowboys.
- Blanco's activities are illuminated in the 2007 documentary film called The Breakdown of Cocaine Cowboys.[1]
- Blanco will be featured in the upcoming 2007 documentary film called .[2]
References
Further reading
- Smitten, Richard. (1993). The Godmother: The True Story of the Hunt for the Most Bloodthirsty Female Criminal in Our Time, Griselda Blanco. Pocket Books. ISBN 0671701932
