Who is Griselda Blanco? Sofia Vergara to play drug lord in Netflix drama

Brought to you by the creators of Narcos, Netflix’s new crime show, Griselda, immortalises the tale of a woman who was once was allegedly feared by the drug baron Pablo Escobar himself.

Describing Griselda Blanco, Escobar once said: “The only man I was ever afraid of was a woman named Griselda Blanco.”

The six-episode drama series stars Modern Families’ Sofia Vergara as the “Cocaine Godmother” herself, who amassed a drug empire worth $2bn.

But what’s the story behind the woman, who allegedly had people murdered because “she didn’t like the way they looked at her”?

Who was Griselda Blanco? 

Blanco was a ruthless drug lord, who created an empire distributing cocaine between Columbia and the US in the '70s and '80s.

Blanco was born into poverty on February 15, 1943, in Santa Marta, Columbia. Her family relocated to Medellin, Columbia, where she would be exposed to the world of crime.

Blanco married a gang member during her teens, and they had three children. But their relationship ended after Blanco allegedly had him killed.

Blanco’s second marriage was to coke trafficker Alberto Bravo, who brought her to Queens, New York in 1964, and introduced her to drug smuggling.

She moved back to Columbia, where she opened a women’s underwear factory and used it to smuggle drugs with the aid of Bravo's clothing-import company.

Her relationship with Bravo soured after she became convinced he was stealing from her and a shootout between them resulted in his death. Blanco reportedly also had her third husband killed, earning her another infamous moniker, “The Black Widow".

Blanco would go on to become more ruthless as her empire expanded in the 1970s. She became a major player and was credited with establishing the cocaine trade between Columbia and the US.

Her business was incredibly lucrative and she reportedly smuggled more than three tonnes of cocaine into the US, making $80 million a month in profit.

What happened to her?

By 1984, Blanco moved to California, after several attempts were made on her life. Her criminal life would come to halt when she was arrested in Irvine by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) and charged with conspiring to manufacture, import, and distribute cocaine in the US.

In 1986, she was convicted and sentenced to the maximum sentence of 15 years in prison. Blanco was allegedly implicated in more than 200 murders during this time, and prosecutors convinced her hit man, Jorge Ayala, to testify against her. But the case would collapse after it was discovered Ayala was involved with the secretaries in the attorney's office.

In 1998, she pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree murder, and she was sentenced to 20 years in prison. During her prison sentence, three of her sons, who were also reportedly traffickers, were killed.

She was granted a compassionate release from prison in 2004 and deported to Columbia, where she led a crime-free life.

On September 3, 2012, aged 69, she was killed outside a butcher’s shop in Medellin by an assassin on a motorcycle.

Griselda is on Netflix from January 25.