Griselda Blanco (February 15, 1943 – September 3, 2012), known as La Madrina, the Black Widow, the Cocaine Godmother and the Queen of Narco-Trafficking, was a
drug lord of the
Medellín Cartel and a pioneer in the
Miami-based
cocaine drug trade and
underworld during the 1970s and early 1980s. She was a main member of the
Medellín Cartel and the mentor of
Pablo Escobar.
[2]
Her distribution network, which spanned the United States, brought in
US$80 million per month.
[1] Her violent business style brought 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 was suspected of masterminding over two hundred murders.
In 1984, Blanco's willingness to use violence against her Miami competitors, or anyone who displeased her, led her rivals to make repeated attempts to kill her. She moved to California to escape the assassination attempts. On 20 February 1985, she was arrested by
DEA agents in her home. Held without bail, Blanco was sentenced to more than a decade in jail.
[7] She continued to run her cocaine business while in jail. By pressuring one of her lieutenants, the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office obtained sufficient evidence to indict her for three murders. However, the case collapsed, largely due to technicalities, and Blanco was released from prison and deported to Colombia in 2004.
[1] Before her death in 2012, she was last seen in
Bogota Airport in May 2007.
[4][8]
Blanco had four sons, three of whom were killed in Colombia after being deported following prison sentences in the U.S. Blanco bore her youngest son, Michael Corleone Blanco by her lover Darío Sepúlveda, who left her in 1983, returning to Colombia, kidnapping Michael when he and Griselda disagreed over who would take custody. Blanco paid to have Sepulveda assassinated in Colombia, and her son returned to her in Miami.
[4][9] According to the
Miami New Times, "Michael's father and older siblings were all killed before he reached adulthood. His mom was in prison for most of his childhood and teenage years, and he was raised by his maternal grandmother and legal guardians."
[9]