The Incredible True Tale of Griselda Blanco: Murderous Drug Lord of the Wild
How did Griselda Blanco get her start in the drug trade?
Blanco was born Feb. 15, 1943, in Cartagena, Colombia, but grew up primarily in Medellín, where notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar was born in 1949, ran his bloody business and died in a shootout with police in 1993.
Starting as a young criminal to earn money, Blanco began as a pickpocket and later shifted to selling marijuana.
In 1964, she relocated to Queens, New York, where there was a large Colombian community. Finding that moving marijuana in large quantities was not practical, she tapped into the lucrative cocaine market.
Initially, Blanco had a factory in Medellín produce corsets and other undergarments with hidden compartments for female smugglers to transport drugs on commercial flights to Miami. Eventually, pilots themselves were enlisted on her payroll.
Her reputation for cunningness and violence grew as she reportedly made millions of dollars a year in the cocaine trade.
“She would resort to violence if she owed you money and didn’t intend to pay, or if you owed her money and couldn’t pay. It was a win for her and a loss for everyone else,” revealed former West Miami Police chief and homicide detective Nelson Andreu.
Actress Vergara described Blanco in a behind-the-scenes clip, stating, “She may not have been as famous as someone like Pablo Escobar, but even he was afraid of her. She was a force to be reckoned with.”