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Liked Sofia Vergara's Griselda on Netflix? Here's the true story that inspired this crime drama

Griselda, directed by Andrés Baiz and starring Sofia Vergara, comprises six episodes and is currently available for streaming on Netflix.

Reema Chhabda

Feb 01, 2024

Griselda on Netflix

Griselda, Netflix's fictionalised portrayal of Griselda Blanco's true story, presents a compelling character: an uncompromising Colombian female drug king who deftly used her persona as a regular housewife to rule the streets of Miami. The biographical crime drama featuring Colombian actress Sofia Vergara was widely welcomed by the audience when it debuted on Netflix on January 25, 2024. The six-part miniseries has received positive reviews from critics who appreciate Vergara's realistic portrayal and attention to detail.

The early years of Griselda Blanco's life

Griselda Blanco was born on February 15, 1943, in the chaotic and dangerous city of Cartagena on Colombia's north coast. She moved to Medellín with her mother, Ana Blanco, when she was just three years old, and that's when she was entangled in the scandals of the criminal world.

At 13, Griselda was accused of committing numerous serious crimes, including kidnapping, attempted ransom, pickpocketing, and firearms assault. It was also around this period that Griselda met Carlos Trujillo, her first husband. After experiencing sexual assault at the hands of her mother's lover when she was nineteen, she fled her family and turned to stealing on the streets of Medellín as a way to make ends meet. The young woman continued on her journey to becoming Griselda Blanco despite the circumstances surrounding her life and birth.

Also read: Griselda review - Sofía Vergara’s power-packed performance turns this Netflix series into a compelling watch

Three spouses, three murders

Griselda With her first husband, Carlos Trujillo, a pimp and part-time document forger, Blanco had three sons: Osvaldo, Uber, and Dixon. Her age was a mere twenty-one. Even though Blanco and Trujillo later got divorced in the late 1960s, they continued to be connected professionally as they collaborated to run their Colombian marijuana trafficking network. A disastrous "business deal" in the 1970s caused their relationship to finally fall apart, and Trujillo was ordered by his ex-wife to commit a horrible murder.

According to some reports, Blanco went to Queens, New York, in 1964 with Trujillo and their sons, using fraudulent passports and aliases; other reports, however, state that she settled there with Alberto Bravo, a Medellín cartel trafficker, who was her second husband.

By the year 1971, Blanco and Bravo had established a successful drug business and were the first cartel to smuggle drugs into the US from Colombia. They were at the pinnacle of their drug empire. Although specifics are unclear, what is known is that Blanco and her family fled to Colombia in 1975 after being charged with a federal narcotics conspiracy together with thirty of her colleagues.

Once they returned to Colombia, Blanco became extremely paranoid and accused her husband of stealing millions from their joint business. Bravo retaliated by saying that Blanco had become too attached to her title of "Godmother."

Bravo and Blanco got into a heated argument that resulted in Bravo's gruesome murder at a nightclub parking lot in Bogota. Blanco is said to have shot Bravo in the head. Blanco was hit in the stomach during the incident when Bravo pulled his Uzi submachine pistol on her, yet after everything was said and done, she found herself in two different roles: widow and leader.

In the late 1970s, Blanco went back to the US and settled in Miami, where she started her drug activities. She married Darío Sepúlveda in 1978, her third and last husband, and the two had a son named Michael Corleone Blanco, who was named after the iconic father from The Godfather television series. After a disagreement over custody, five years later, in 1983, Sepúlveda left Blanco and took their son, bringing him back to Colombia with a different lady. Blanco, not one to be disregarded, gave the order to have him killed, giving more validity to her moniker, 'Black Widow'.

Sepúlveda was shot and killed in the same year by people posing as police officers. After that, Michael Corleone Blanco was sent back to his mother in the United States.

Griselda Blanco's imprisonment and assassination

The DEA arrested Griselda Blanco Blanco at home on February 17, 1985, for allegedly plotting to produce, import, and distribute cocaine. This marked the beginning of her captivity and eventual assassination.

After being found guilty in a federal court in New York City, Blanco received a fifteen-year jail sentence. Three additional first-degree murder charges from the state of Florida were brought against Blanco while she was serving her sentence.

Despite entering a guilty plea to three charges of second-degree murder and receiving a concurrent 20-year jail sentence, Blanco eventually got out in 2004 due to a series of health problems. The Cocaine Godmother was deported at the age of 61 and went back to Medellín, the city where it all started.

Eight years after returning to Medellín, on September 3, 2012, Griselda Blanco's life ended brutally and unexpectedly. According to reports, Blanco had gone to the Cardiso butcher shop with her pregnant daughter-in-law. As she was leaving, an assassin on a motorcycle fatally shot her twice, replicating the method of murder she had used while the Miami Drug War was at its worst.

ALSO READ: Griselda Twitter review – Sofia Vergara mesmerizes viewers with her killer performance

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