Griselda Blanco

Griselda Blanco

Griselda Blanco Restrepo, known as La Madrina, the Black Widow, the Cocaine Godmother and the Queen of Narco-Trafficking, was a Colombian drug lord of the Medellín Cartel. At her height, Blanco was one of the richest and most dangerous women in the world, and was the most powerful drug kingpin in the history of the drug trade. Her distribution network, which spanned the United States, brought in US$80,000,000 per month.

About Griselda Blanco in brief

Summary Griselda BlancoGriselda Blanco Restrepo, known as La Madrina, the Black Widow, the Cocaine Godmother and the Queen of Narco-Trafficking, was a Colombian drug lord of the Medellín Cartel. She was a pioneer in the Miami-based cocaine drug trade and underworld during the 1980s through the early 2000s. It has been estimated that she was responsible for up to 2,000 murders while transporting cocaine from Colombia to New York, Miami and Southern California. At her height, Blanco was one of the richest and most dangerous women in the world, and was the most powerful drug kingpin in the history of the drug trade. Her distribution network, which spanned the United States, brought in US$80,000,000 per month. Blanco’s 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. On the night of September 3, 2012, at the age of 69, she was shot twice in the head and once in the shoulder by a motorcyclist in Bogotá, Colombia. In 2004, she suffered from a heart attack while imprisoned and was released from prison. In May 2007 at the last sighting of Blanco, she died at the airport in Colombia after having bought 150lbs of meat; the middle-aged gunman climbed off the back of a motorbike and pulled out a gun and shot Blanco two times before walking away.

She is survived by her son Michael Blanco and her daughter-in-law, Ana Lucía Restrepos, who were married for more than 30 years and have a son, also named Michael. She died in 2012, aged 69, at a butcher shop on Cardiso Street in Medellin, Colombia, on the corner of 29th Street and Cardiso Avenue, after having purchased 150 lbs of meat for $1,000. In the mid-1970s, she and her second husband Alberto Bravo illegally immigrated to the US with fake passports, settling in Queens, New York. They established a sizable cocaine business there, and in April 1975, they were indicted on federal drug conspiracy charges along with 30 of her subordinates. She fled to Colombia before she could be arrested, but returned to the U.S., settling in Miami in the late 1970s. In 1984, her willingness to use violence against her Miami competitors led her rivals to make repeated attempts to assassinate her.