Cocaine godmother: the savage life of Griselda Blanco

When it comes to drug trafficking, People usually think of Pablo Escobar—the king of the Drug industry and founder as well as sole leader of the Medellin cartel. But in reality, there are few other names who really transformed the drug mafia. In today's video, we're going to tell you the story of Griselda Blanco—the Godmother of drug smuggling. The lady who inspired Pablo Escobar and drove the Medellin Cartel to its bloodthirsty heights. Bear with us until the very end to know about the savage life of Griselda Blanco.

Early Life

Griselda Blanco, often known as The Black Widow, has earned a place in history as the "Queen of Drug Trafficking" for developing smuggling and murder tactics still in use today. Although there is some controversy concerning her birthplace, many sources indicate that she was born in Santa Marta, Colombia, which is also the city where she was christened. She grew reared in poverty, and her involvement in criminal activity began at a young age. According to some versions, she assisted in kidnapping a child when she was 11 years old, and when the boy's wealthy family refused to pay the ransom, she fatally shot him. In addition, she was accused of being a thief and a prostitute. At the age of thirteen, she met her first spouse, with whom she fell in love and eventually married. They had three children together: Dixon, Uber, and Osvaldo. They were both engaged in illegal activities at the time of their divorce in the 1960s. Ten years later, he is reported to have been assassinated by his Godmother, allegedly following a dispute over a financial concern.

And in the early 1970s, she was in relationship with Alberto Bravo, a drug trafficker whom she eventually married in 1977. It was via him that she was introduced to the world of cocaine trafficking. The couple established a base in New York City and started importing the drug into the United States. Blanco's ingenuity aided the couple's enormous and extremely successful enterprise where they used lingerie constructed with hidden compartments for smuggling narcotics, which she used to great effect.

On the other hand, Blanco was forced to return to Colombia in 1975 due to narcotics allegations. Bravo was killed in a shoot-out with his wife after being convinced that he was skimming money from the family. Following in the footsteps of her namesake "Black Widow," she is said to have murdered her third husband as well.

who is Griselda Blanco?

Griselda Blanco was found dead in a butcher's shop, with a bible covering her chest, after being accused of being responsible for the murders of around 250 people, including at least two of her three ex-husbands. Being both charming and bloodthirsty, it comes as no surprise that Griselda's dramatic biography was made into an HBO film in 2007, titled 'Cocaine Godmother: The Griselda Blanco Story,' which starred Catherine Zeta-Jones. Griselda Blanco is supposed to have inspired the 1983 film 'Scarface,' a frightening story from beginning to conclusion.

The route to success

The inventions used in the Godmother's successful Colombia-to-New York route were narcotics carried in by small planes and 'drug-smuggling underwear' with secret compartments, which she designed in her own lingerie boutique back in Medellin and sold to customers.

According to reports, after a shoot-out between Alberto and Griselda, Blanco's second husband, Alberto Bravo, was supposed to have met his death at the hands of the Black Widow. Instead, Alberto and six of his bodyguards were slain in a rage over unaccounted for cocaine money, but Griselda was just wounded in the stomach. This was clearly not a lady to be trifled with in any way.

However, things came to a climax in 1975, when Blanco fled the United States in haste to avoid being arrested. As a result, Griselda was able to escape being arrested for cocaine smuggling, which would have been the largest arrest in the history of the United States.

After hiding in Colombia for many years, Griselda returned to the United States to resume her lucrative drug smuggling operation. She did, however, choose a different place this time—Miami. Within a few years, Griselda's hysterical behavior had transformed Miami entirely.

The merciless campaign she waged to keep her position at the helm became known as the 'Miami Drug War.' Her barbarous crimes, including 'the motorcycle assassination,' are allegedly developed by her. It is called a motorbike assassination in which an assassin fires at the victim from the back of a motorcycle piloted by an accomplice.

Griselda and her gang of frantic smugglers, known as the 'Cocaine Cowboys,' were the subject of a 2006 documentary of the same name, directed by Alfred Spellman and Billy Corben, filmed in Mexico.

The drug war in Miami helped Griselda establish herself as the most powerful drug lord in the city, earning millions and millions of dollars in fortune in the process. A report from the time of her prime said that the drug smuggling operations generated $80,000,000 per month. She was accused of killing innocent bystanders, colleagues, double-crossers, and even a little kid. She was described as brutal and cold-blooded.

A bloodthirsty monster

People are interested in Griselda Blanco because she smuggled drugs and hacked her adversaries to pieces. If you got in a fight with her, she'd kill you. If you tampered with her children, she would have her brutes torture you while laughing maniacally as your bones shattered and flesh peeled away. The majority of people feel that a variety of things contributed to her viciousness. Firstly, she grew raised in a violent household with her parents. And, second, she used a lot of violence to persuade the male crime lords around her that she was not to be trifled with in the least. This helped her a lot to become the Godmother within a very short time period.

She was suspected of masterminding at least 40 killings between Miami and New York, including the shooting death of a two-year-old toddler in a drive-by shooting near SW 168th Street and South Dixie Highway. According to the testimony of FBI informant Max Mermelstein, Blanco claimed that she was pleased with herself for killing the child since it had disturbed the father's feelings.

Griselda was able to live the high life because she had millions in drug money at her disposal. She cherished a set of pearls that had previously belonged to the first lady of Argentina, Eva Peron, as well as a tea set that had formerly belonged to Queen Elizabeth II of the United Kingdom. It was also reported by The New York Post that she enjoyed throwing coke-fueled orgies, where she would occasionally compel men and women to have sex under the threat of a pistol.

Drug business

Blanco was a pivotal personality in the history of the drug trade, which spanned from Colombia to Miami, New York, and California. Blanco and her second husband, Alberto Bravo, illegally entered the United States in the mid-1970s, living in Queens, New York, after obtaining phony passports in Mexico. It wasn't long before they built a significant cocaine operation in the area, and Blanco was charged on federal narcotics conspiracy charges along with 30 of her employees in April 1975. Before being apprehended, she escaped to Colombia. She later returned to the United States, residing in Miami in the late 1970s.

Blanco's return to the United States from Colombia roughly coincided with the beginning of very public violent conflicts involving hundreds of murders and killings each year, associated with the high crime epidemic that swept through Miami in the 1980s. Blanco's return to the United States from Colombia roughly coincided with the beginning of very public violent conflicts involving hundreds of murders and killings each year, associated with the high crime epidemic that swept through Miami in the 1980s. The fight by law enforcement to stop the flood of cocaine into Miami resulted in the formation of CENTAC 26 (Central Tactical Unit), a joint operation between the Miami-Dade Police Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Blanco participated in the drug-related violence known as the Miami Drug War or the Cocaine Cowboy Wars, which engulfed Miami in the late 1970s and early 1980s and was known as the Miami Drug War or the Cocaine Cowboy Wars. This was a period in which cocaine trafficking outnumbered marijuana trafficking. And because of the chaotic and corrupt environment fostered, in large part, by Blanco's activities, the criminals were called the "Cocaine Cowboys," and their brutal method of doing business was termed the "Miami drug war."

Her distribution network, which stretched throughout the whole United States, generated US$80,000,000 in revenue every month. Her brutal business manner drew the attention of the federal authorities to South Florida, ultimately contributing to the destruction of her organization and the high-profile Miami drug scene of the time. In 1984, Blanco's readiness to use violence against her Miami competitors or anybody else who annoyed her prompted her opponents to try to murder her on several occasions. To get away from the hits being called on her, she went to California with her children.

Arrest

In her house on February 18, 1985, she was apprehended by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and imprisoned without bail in lieu of a $50,000 bond. Blanco was sentenced to more than a decade in prison, and she attempted to flee from the prison after being placed there. However, while incarcerated, she continued to operate her cocaine company with her son, Michael Blanco, who served as her business manager.

The Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office acquired adequate evidence against Blanco by applying pressure to one of his lieutenants. As a result, Blanco was accused for three killings. However, a phone sex scandal between the star witness and female secretaries in the District attorney's office resulted in the case being dismissed due to procedural irregularities. The year was 2002, and Blanco was in jail when he had a heart attack. Blanco was freed from jail in 2004 and deported to the Colombian capital of Medelln. Blanco was last seen in May 2007 at the Bogota International Airport, only a few months before her death in 2012.

Murder

Blanco died in Medellin, Colombia, on the night of September 3, 2012, after being shot twice, once in the head and once in the shoulder, by a motorcycler while riding through the city. She was shot twice in the back of the head at the Cardiso butcher shop on the corner of 29th Street after she had purchased $150 worth of meat. The middle-aged gunman climbed off the back of a motorcycle outside the shop, entered, pulled out a gun, and shot Blanco twice before calmly walking back to his motorcycle and disappearing into the city. At the time of her death, she had reached the age of 69.

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