Highlights

• Griselda Blanco was a powerful and ruthless drug lord who rose to fame and power in the male-dominated drug underworld.
• She was responsible for at least 200 murders and had the nickname "The Black Widow" due to the death of three of her four husbands.
• At her peak, Griselda Blanco's net worth stood at an estimated $2 billion, and she and owned over $500 million worth of real estate.

The harsh terrain of the drug trade rarely yields to female leadership.

Yet, Griselda Blanco more than merely carved her name in this male-dominated drug underworld.

The "Black Widow" of the Medellín Cartel was not your typical drug lord.

Rising from the poverty-stricken streets of Medellín, Colombia, Blanco clawed her way to the top of the drug cartel, becoming one of the most powerful and ruthless figures in the history of the drug trade.

Her story is a chilling one, filled with ambition, cunning, and a complete disregard for human life. The drug mistress earned the nickname "The Black Widow" because three of her four husbands ended up dead.

She rose to fame and power in the 1980s, running cocaine for the Medellín Cartel and designing special undergarments that would help cartel members smuggle cocaine across the border to other South and North American countries.

Griselda worked closely with Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar, who was a friend from childhood.

Blanco's notoriety precedes her; she was one of the most murderous crime bosses of all time and was allegedly responsible for at least 200 murders of men, women, and children.

At her peak, Griselda Blanco had a net worth of $2 billion.

She was believed to have owned over $500 million worth of real estate, a portion of which, totaling $120 million, fell under the discerning scrutiny of American authorities and was subsequently seized.

Her story is the subject of the new six-part biographical crime drama starring Sofía Vergara and created by Narcos and Narcos: Mexico showrunner Eric Newman.

Updated, March 2024: On March 1st, InSight Crime published an analysis of Netflix's Griselda, pointing out what the documentary "got wrong" about Griselda Blanco in its dramatized narrative. Positing that the fictionalized version of Blanco's life "softened" her image and motivations, the outlet said:

"The series attempts to portray Blanco as a mother who had no other choice than to get into the drug trade to provide for her sons after running away to Miami to escape her husband ...

" ... In reality, Blanco became a well-known figure for her use of violence. She was known to be ruthless with her enemies, and even pioneered the modus operandi of sicariato, or assassins-for-hire, which has become common in every country in Latin America.

"The use of violence by female criminal leaders, which is varied and complex, is regularly overlooked by researchers, security forces, and prosecutors. Violent women, especially those associated with organized crime, are treated as outliers because they defy the gender stereotype of women as natural caregivers rather than perpetrators of violence."

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Griselda Blanco's Early Life

Born in 1943 in the bustling port city of Cartagena, Colombia, Griselda Blanco's early life was far from easy.

Blanco and her mother, Ana, moved to Medellín when she was three years old, and this exposed her to a criminal lifestyle at an early age.

Poverty clung to her like a second skin in the crime-filled streets of Medellín.

She reportedly committed her first murder at the age of 11, when she shot a boy who came from a wealthy neighborhood after his family refused to pay a ransom.

She also became a skilled pickpocket and thief, and fled from her abusive mother's boyfriend at the age of 19.

She survived on the streets of Medellín by stealing and possibly by engaging in sex work, although she later denied the latter allegation.

Blanco's introduction to drugs came when she met her second husband, a trafficker named Alberto Bravo, who was involved in the marijuana trade outside of Columbia.

Together, they started a drug business that would eventually lead them to the United States and the lucrative cocaine market.

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Griselda And The Drug Trade

Griselda Blanco was one of the most influential and notorious drug lords in the history of Colombia and the United States.

She started her drug career in Colombia with her first husband, Carlos Trujillo, who dealt marijuana. After his death, she married Alberto Bravo, a cocaine smuggler who worked for the Medellín Cartel.

Together, they forged fake documents and moved to the US in the mid-1970s, where they established a large-scale cocaine operation in New York.

However, in 1975, they were charged with federal drug conspiracy along with dozens of their associates. Blanco managed to escape to Colombia, but Bravo was killed in a shootout with her after a disagreement over their business operations.

Blanco returned to the US in the late 1970s and settled in Miami, where she became the leader of a violent drug war that terrorized the city.

She was known for her ruthless and innovative methods of smuggling and killing, such as using motorcycle assassins and underwear bombs.

She was also responsible for importing up to three tons of cocaine per month into the US, earning her an estimated $80 million per month.

Blanco's reign of terror ended in 1984 when she was arrested in California after a long investigation by the Drug Enforcement agency (DEA), a United States federal law enforcement agency.

She was sentenced to 20 years in prison, but was released in 2004 and deported to Colombia.

Blanco was assassinated in 2012 by a gunman on a motorcycle, a method she had pioneered. She was 69.

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Griselda Blanco's Net Worth And Assets

The notorious Black Widow was not just a powerful figure in the drug trade; she was also one of the wealthiest drug dealers of all time.

At the peak of her drug empire, Griselda was worth $2 billion, placing her among the top ten richest drug lords of all time, the only woman to crack the list.

To put that in perspective, she was wealthier than the infamous Al Capone, who was worth $1.3 billion at the time of his demise but fell short of Pablo Escobar's estimated net worth of $30 billion.

Blanco owned a vast amount of real estate and other assets, both in Colombia and the US. When she died in 2012, she left behind a real estate portfolio worth around $500 million.

Griselda also had a building listed for sale for 1,500 million pesos (about $88.5 million) at the time of her death. However, Blanco also lost a significant amount of money due to ongoing arrests and asset seizures on the part of authorities.

When she was captured in 1985, the Drug Enforcement Agency's CENTAC (Central Tactical Program) confiscated a large share of the cash and properties Blanco held at the time.

Griselda also had hidden bank accounts and concealed assets that were never recovered.

DEA agent Robert Palombo, who arrested Blanco, told Maxim that she had "tons of money squirreled away in different bank accounts that were never recovered."

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The Arrest And Murder Of Griselda Blanco

Griselda Blanco's criminal career came to an end in 1985, when the DEA captured her in her California home.

She was charged with conspiring to import and distribute cocaine and sentenced to 15 years in prison. However, she only served ten years, and in 1994, she made a deal with the prosecutors to plead guilty to three murders in Miami.

She received another ten-year sentence but continued to run her drug empire from behind bars with the help of her son, Michael Corleone Blanco.

Blanco was released in 2004 and deported to Colombia, where she lived a low-profile life until 2012.

On September 3, 2012, she was killed in a brutally ironic fashion: a gunman on a motorcycle shot her twice in the head and shoulder while she was buying meat at a butcher shop with her pregnant daughter-in-law.

The act mimicked the assassination style that Blanco practiced during the Miami Drug War.

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