Griselda Blanco, played by Sofia Vergara in the Netflix show Griselda, was at the center of the U.S. cocaine drug trade in the 1970s and 1980s. By how long did the Colombian drug lord spend in prison?
Blanco, known in her lifetime as the “cocaine godmother” and the “black widow,” had more than drug trafficking on her record. She pleaded guilty to ordering three murders, she killed her second husband, according to an associate, and she’s even rumored to have killed a boy in her youth. Some estimate that she may have ordered the murder of hundreds of others in her infamous career.
In 1975, Blanco was indicted on drug charges in the U.S., and a warrant was issued for her arrest. In 1985, Blanco was finally taken into custody.
Blanco was sentenced to 15 years in prison
Once arrested on drug charges, Griselda Blanco was sentenced to 15 years in prison in Florida. In 1993, Blanco’s associate, Jorge “Rivi” Ayala, pleaded guilty to three murders he said Blanco ordered. In 1998, Blanco pleaded guilty to second-degree murder while serving her 15-year sentence related to those deaths. As a consequence, Blanco received three consecutive 20-year prison sentences.
While serving that time, Blanco had a heart attack in 2002, and two years later, she was released for health reasons, and deported back to Colombia. In total, Blanco spent about 17 years behind bars. Eight years after she was deported, Blanco was shot and killed by Colombian assassins at the age of 69, in much the same way she ordered people murdered at the height of her notorious criminal enterprise —shot by an assailant on a motorbike.