Griselda Blanco, known as the “Godmother of Cocaine,” was one of the most infamous drug lords in history. At the height of her career in the 1970s and 80s, she was a key figure in the violent Medellín Cartel and is said to have smuggled over 3 tons of cocaine per month into the United States. While many people are familiar with her reputation as a ruthless queenpin, there are some lesser known facts about Griselda Blanco that shed light on her early life and criminal career:

1. She grew up in extreme poverty in Colombia. Griselda Blanco was born in 1943 in Cartagena, Colombia and grew up in a poor Medellín slum. Her mother was a prostitute and Griselda turned to pickpocketing and petty crime as a child just to survive. She allegedly kidnapped and ransomed a child from a wealthy family at age 11. Her difficult childhood shaped Griselda’s fierce determination to escape poverty at any cost.
2. She got the nickname “The Black Widow” for murdering her husbands. Griselda Blanco had three marriages during her lifetime and was implicated in the murders of two of her husbands. Her first husband was killed shortly after testifying against her in a kidnapping case. In the 1970s, she had her second husband, Alberto Bravo, murdered and severed his limbs after he stole millions from her cocaine business.
3. She pioneered innovative drug smuggling routes to the U.S. In the early 1970s, Griselda Blanco spearheaded routes for trafficking vast quantities of cocaine from Colombia through Mexico and into California and Florida in the United States. At her peak, her organization was bringing in over $80 million a month in drug profits. She came up with creative ways to conceal cocaine including hiding it in the heels of platform shoes and using live animals as drug mules.
4. She invented ingenious methods for sneaking cash back to Colombia. Griselda Blanco designed clever techniques for laundering her massive drug profits and sneaking the cash back to Colombia without detection. Her methods included buying stocks and bonds and clipping them into the pages of luxury goods catalogues which she mailed back home. She also purchased hundreds of return plane tickets from Miami to Bogotá as a way to justify all the cash she was funneling through airports.
5. She allegedly helped pave the way for the modern Mexican drug cartels. In the 1970s and early 80s, Griselda Blanco brought Mexican traffickers into the cocaine trade by forging connections between the Medellín cartel and groups like the Guadalajara Cartel. Her efforts to link Colombian suppliers with Mexican smugglers helped establish the blueprint for today’s sophisticated cross-border drug operations.
6. She was involved in the deadly “Cocaine Cowboy Wars” in Miami. Griselda Blanco was a central figure in the violent Miami drug wars between rival traffickers in the late 1970s and early 1980s for control of the lucrative U.S. cocaine market. Hundreds died in drug-related murders during this period which became known as the “Cocaine Cowboy Wars.” Blanco was allegedly involved in dozens of murders during this time.
7. She was suspected of a shopping mall murder spree in Florida. In 1979, three separate shootings took place in Miami-area shopping malls over a three-day period leaving two shoppers dead and several more injured. Though never convicted, authorities suspected Griselda Blanco had orchestrated the public shootings to divert attention from a large smuggling operation she was planning. The brazen murders added to her notoriety.
8. She escaped murder charges because witnesses were too scared to testify. Blanco was arrested and charged with three murders in 1985 but the charges were later dismissed because crucial witnesses turned up dead and others were too frightened to testify. At the peak of her power, many were terrified to even say Blanco’s name out loud for fear of reprisal.
9. She may have played a role in the Miami cocaine riots. In 1980, riots broke out in Miami over the acquittal of Miami police officers who had beaten an African-American man to death. Some theories suggest the riots were also linked to drug traffickers capitalizing on racial tensions to target their enemies. Informants claim Blanco may have stirred up and financed some rioters.
10. She fled to California to escape the escalating drug wars. By the early 1980s, the heat on Blanco’s operations had become intense. In 1984, she fled to California where she continued running her smuggling networks under the radar until she was eventually arrested, tried, and incarcerated in 1985.

Even among Colombia’s drug kingpins, Griselda Blanco stands out as one of the most ruthless and creative traffickers of her day. Her violent exploits and pioneering drug distribution routes earned her lifelong notoriety. Though decades have passed since her heyday, her name still evokes the turbulent, big money cocaine era of the 1970s and 80s.

Image courtesy Independent