Griselda Blanco

Griselda Blanco (born February 15, 1943, Santa Marta?, Colombia—died September 3, 2012, Medellín) was a Colombian cocaine trafficker who amassed a vast empire and was a central figure in the violent drug wars in Miami in the 1970s and ’80s.

Although there is some confusion about her birth location, a number of sources give it as Santa Marta, Colombia, where Blanco was baptized. She grew up in poverty, and her life of crime reportedly began at an early age. According to some accounts, at age 11 she helped kidnap a boy, and, after his wealthy family refused to pay the ransom, she fatally shot him. She also was alleged to be a pickpocket and prostitute. While still a teenager, she married a small-time criminal, and the couple had three children. However, they subsequently divorced—Blanco was believed to have ordered his murder several years later—and in the early 1970s she began a relationship with Alberto Bravo, a drug trafficker whom she ultimately married. It was through him that she became involved in the cocaine trade. With New York City as their base, the couple began bringing the drug into the United States. Aided by Blanco’s creativity—she notably had lingerie made with secret compartments to smuggle drugs—the couple created an extensive and highly profitable operation. However, facing drug charges, Blanco returned to Colombia in 1975. That year she came to believe that her husband was stealing money, and a shoot-out between the couple resulted in Bravo’s death. Living up to her nickname as the “Black Widow,” she reportedly later had her third husband killed as well.

By the late 1970s Blanco had moved to Miami, where she made her reputation as the “Godmother of Cocaine.” Seeking to eliminate her competition, she displayed a brazen ruthlessness that plunged the city into a period of violence that became known as the Cocaine Cowboy Wars. She allegedly ordered numerous murders, many of which were committed by gunmen on motorcycles, a practice she was said to have invented. In addition, a number of the killings occurred in broad daylight, including a shoot-out at a local mall in 1979. Backed by such violence and a sharp cunning, Blanco became one of the world’s wealthiest drug traffickers. According to reports, she smuggled more than three tons of cocaine into the United States annually, netting some $80 million per month. Blanco embraced her criminal persona, notably naming one of her sons Michael Corleone, after a crime boss in the Godfather series. She also enjoyed a lavish lifestyle that included luxury homes and hedonistic parties.

Targeted by rivals and fearing for her life, Blanco moved to California in 1984. However, the following year she was arrested and taken to New York to face the 1975 drug charges. Found guilty in 1985, she received the maximum sentence of 15 years in prison, though she reportedly continued to run her empire while incarcerated. During this time, officials looked to press additional charges against Blanco, who was implicated in more than 200 murders. In 1994, after one of her hit men, Jorge Ayala, agreed to testify against her, Blanco was charged with three murders, including the fatal shooting of a former enforcer’s two-year-old son, who was killed during a failed attempt on his father’s life. Prosecutors were seeking the death penalty, but Ayala’s credibity was undermined when it was revealed that he had been having phone sex with secretaries in the prosecuting attorney’s office; one of the women claimed that she was acting on orders of the prosecutor, who denied the charges. In 1998 Blanco ultimately pled guilty in exchange for a reduced sentence, and six years later she was released and deported to Colombia. Blanco reportedly retired from a life of crime, but in 2012 she was killed by a gunman on a motorcycle as she left a butcher shop in Medellín.

Larger-than-life—and one of the few women to attain such power in the drug world—Blanco inspired books, movies, and TV shows. She notably was featured in the documentary Cocaine Cowboys (2006), served as the central figure in Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin’ with the Godmother (2008), and was the focus of the Netflix limited series Griselda (2024).