Griselda Blanco

Griselda Blanco

Griselda Blanco (born February 15, 1943 in Cartagena , Colombia ; † September 3, 2012 in Medellín ), also called the "Godmother" of cocaine , "Ma Baker" of the Cocaine Cowboys , "Viuda Negra", "Black Widow" or " La Madrina ”, was one of the“ most ruthless and cruel ”leaders of the Colombian Medellín cartel in the United States during the 1970s and 1980s . She was considered one of the "pioneers" of the Medellín cartel in Miami and founded her own organization. Blanco was married three times - their husbands are said to have killed them - and was the mother of four sons named Dixon, Uber, Osvaldo and Michael Corleone Sepulveda.

Life

personality

Griselda Blanco were charged with sadistic and bestial murders , preferably of younger, more beautiful women or past lovers. It was said that she killed for fun, shot a pregnant woman in the abdomen and tortured, abused and finally had her best friend Leonela Arias killed. She herself is said to have been attractive in her youth, but she was severely scarred by frequent violence and excessive cocaine and crack abuse and was slowly becoming incurably schizophrenic . Due to the constant abuse of drugs, painkillers and tranquilizers, she was sometimes barely aware of her surroundings. Griselda Blanco has been classified as a sociopathic personality who spent a lot of money on haute couture and luxury items, such as an Eva Perón ring and a tea set from the Queen . She received a diamond-studded MAC-10 submachine gun as a Christmas present from one of her lovers . Griselda Blanco was bisexual.

Youth in Colombia

Griselda Blanco was born the illegitimate daughter of a field worker and a large landowner who was descended from Guajiro Indians. She later came to Medellín with her mother and siblings , where her mother struggled as an occasional prostitute in a slum and finally abandoned her daughter while intoxicated. Griselda is said to have been abused and severely mistreated several times by her mother "El Lupero", who was alcoholic and who was free. At the age of eleven, Griselda left her mother and joined a group of street children with whom she committed a series of robberies. With her group, she kidnapped a boy of wealthy parents, whom she killed herself with a head shot when the family refused to pay the ransom demanded . In the brothels and taverns of Medellín, she specifically met men who worked in the USA.

Activity in the USA

Criminal beginnings in New York

Through one of her lovers, Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, she finally got to Jackson Heights in Queens / New York , where the two married. Trujillo worked as a forger and made his living by illegally smuggling people from Colombia to the USA.

Trujillo introduced her to the drug dealer Alberto Bravo from Medellín.

It is believed that she poisoned her first husband Trujillo following this new marriage.

DEA agent Roy Pena was involved in the investigation against Griselda Blanco. He worked with the Queens Homicide Task Force, which was dealing with a number of unsolved murders in which the victims had lost large amounts of blood. It was the way of murder of Miguel "Paco" Sepulveda, one of Blancos' first contract killers, who hung the victims upside down, cut their throats and let them bleed to death. The corpse was thus more elastic and, wrapped in disposable diapers, could be disposed of more easily in cardboard boxes.

In 1973, Operation Banshee was carried out against Colombian drug traffickers in New York. In 1975 Griselda Blanco, Alberto Bravo and their US distributor Pepe Cabrera were associated with a criminal organization from Medellín. Blanco ran an underwear and corsetry shop in Medellín and used sewn-in hidden pockets to smuggle cocaine into the United States.

Bravo was shot by her in Medellín in 1975 after she was offended by him. A total of six bodyguards were killed in the firefight in a parking lot and Griselda Blanco was seriously injured by a shot in the stomach. After this act she was nicknamed the "Black Widow".

Florida drug deals

The Trujillo Blanco group began smuggling cocaine from Medellín to New York before going into large-scale drug business in Miami , Florida . Griselda Blanco brought an average of 1.5 tons of cocaine to Florida by plane or ship every month .

She also used female "mules" who smuggled cocaine on the body into the USA. The group employed around one thousand people and had monthly revenues of about eight million dollars.

The Miami International Airport and Seaport served as an ideal transshipment point for Colombian cocaine. The infrastructure of the Cuban and Puerto Rican drug traffickers was taken over. So-called "cell managers" were responsible for the transport and distribution of the drug to wholesalers and retailers. The proceeds in US dollars were transferred back to their home countries via Western Union or via the Colombian Casa de Cambios. Griselda Blanco was one of the pioneers of the Colombian drug business in the USA and set up hubs and main transfer points for the international cocaine trade in New York and later in Miami.

It is believed that she helped Carlos Lehder Rivas and Pablo Escobar to get to the United States. Marta Ochoa Salderriega, cousin of the Ochoa clan, was Blanco's main supplier. Since Blanco did not want to repay her $ 1.8 million debt to her, she had Salderriega murdered.

Miami cocaine war

The cocaine wars in Miami took place between 1978 and 1982. In 1978 Griselda Blanco moved to Miami and moved into a luxury apartment in Biscayne Bay.

Griselda Blanco invented the motorcycle killers , the so-called “Cocaine Cowboys”, who killed their victims with semi-automatic weapons while they were driving. Their goal was to control the entire sales market in Florida within a very short time.

Dadeland County Mall Massacre

In 1979 Griselda Blanco was instrumental in the Dade County Mall massacre. On July 11, 1979, at 2:20 p.m., a shooting broke out between members of the Medellin cartel in Florida's largest shopping center, Dadeland County Mall. Two Colombians armed with submachine guns caught two rivals who owed Blanco money, Jimenez Panesso and Juan Carlos Hernandez, at the Crown Liquors liquor store and killed them in a gun battle. Two employees and witnesses to the shooting fled and were seriously injured while trying to escape through the mall. As they escaped, the hit men (one of whom was Miguel “Paco” Sepulveda) shot at several shop windows and caused panic among visitors to the mall.

A large arsenal of weapons was found in a parked delivery van owned by Happy Time Complete Party Supply , a total of 14 handguns, shotguns, MAC-10 submachine guns and carbines. This crime, committed by daylight in the middle of a public mall, attracted more media attention as it now became apparent that a new dimension in the drug war between heavily armed criminals had begun in the US with no regard for casualty or collateral damage. The new lawlessness in the once quiet Miami was compared in newspaper articles with the conditions in what was then Dodge City.

Expansion of violence and peak of power of the Trujillo Blanco organization

The Dadeland massacre was the prelude to the infamous cocaine wars in Miami. After that, violence escalated and there were frequent open fire fights in residential areas at any time of day in the battle for market share between rival Colombian and Cuban drug dealers.

At the time, it was believed that around 100,000 Colombians in South Florida were involved in cocaine trafficking. Colombian contract killers not only killed individual rivals, but also their families and friends in order to gain respect within organized crime.

Another highlight of the war was a massacre at King's Court Kendall, in which six people were killed.

At peak times, up to eight murders were recorded within 48 hours. In 1976, 104 murders were recorded, in 1979 there were 367, 1980 573 and 1981 621 unsolved murders with Colombian involvement. The increase in the murder rate in 1980 was further linked to the exodus of the Marielitos from Cuba from April 15 to October 31, 1980. There were many Cuban criminals among the refugees who ended up in the United States in this way.

The Miami Herald headlined the surge in crime with the headline "Shootout at the Cocaine Corral".

Jorge "Rivi" Ayala , who was born in Cali / Colombia and worked as a car thief in Chicago , came to Miami in August 1980 and unwittingly prevented an attack on two brothers at Club Jacaranda who were in a feud with the Trujillo Blanco organization. Ayala promised Blanco to make amends to track down the escaped brothers and kill them - for each of the two he should receive 50,000 dollars. This was his entry into the Trujillo Blanco organization.

In 1981, the DEA formed the Centac 26 special investigation group in Miami against the activities of Blancos. Blanco and Sepulveda avoided arrest for a long time by commuting between Florida, New York and Colombia.

After her son Osvaldo had provoked her chief killer Jesús "Chucho" Castro and he insulted him, Blanco ordered Ayala in 1982 to liquidate Castro.

Two-year-old son Castro was accidentally killed in a car chase and subsequent shoot-out. The murder of an innocent toddler sparked widespread protests and outrage within the organization as far as Colombia and prompted Medellin Cartel Chairman Jorge Ochoa to severely reprimand Blanco by trying to keep her away from Miami, which was unsuccessful since Blanco now operated largely independently.

After the murder of Jesús “Chucho” Castro, the Trujillo Blanco organization dominated the cocaine trade in southern Florida. From 1982 to 1984 Ayala took the role of Castro within the gang and was instrumental in all major contract killings; he was later arrested and initially entered a witness protection program .

Ayala reported that Blanco had killed for trivial reasons and sadism. If a payment term was overdue, the money was forcibly collected from the debtor and the person was killed in the most cruel manner possible, in order to gain respect and standing as the only woman through terror and extreme severity in the violent Colombian drug scene traditionally dominated by men. Often the threat of sending “Cumbamba” by chainsaw in the event of a violation or non-payment was enough to meet demands.

The hit man, nicknamed "Cumbamba", was known to saw his victims with a chainsaw and stow them in boxes. Although he was believed to have been responsible for dozens of murders in Colombia, Florida, and New York, nothing has been proven.

Around 200 murders between Miami, New York and Colombia have been directly or indirectly linked to Blanco. The double murder of Alfredo and Grizel Lorenzo, who owed her drug money after purchasing goods on commission , was proven to her in South Miami . Ayala and his group killed the couple in their home in June 1982 in the presence of their children. Originally, Blanco's order was to liquidate everyone in the house, including the uninvolved children, but Ayala refused. Ayala had to keep Miguel Perez, who wanted to collect additional money, at gunpoint from killing the children.

Paco "Papo" Mejia, a former member of the Trujillo Blanco organization, was doing business on his own account and should therefore be liquidated by order of Blancos. Ayala was sent to New York and eliminated eleven members from the vicinity of Mejia within 24 hours, including his father Octavio, who was shot in his car at the "Mall of the Americas". Mejia escaped this action and it was decided to blow up his house in Killian Parkway / Miami with dynamite. The attack succeeded, but the house was empty. Finally, on September 15, 1982, Miguel "Miguelito" Perez Mejia was ambushed at Miami Airport and stabbed him in public with several bayonet stabs. However, Mejia survived the attack while Perez was arrested and sentenced to 15 years in prison.

The attack on Mejia sparked a major media discussion about the general security situation in Florida and the government came under pressure. The police presence has increased dramatically and the number of arrests against Colombian drug traffickers has increased. The police, coast guards and the FBI were now working closely together.

During Operation Redrum, initiated by DEA, Metro Dade and the Miami Police Department, investigators investigated a total of 50 homicides that Blanco had been charged with.

Escape to California

In order to escape the strong search pressure in Florida , Blanco moved her operating seat to Irvine , California , southeast of Los Angeles , where she lived as a housewife with her youngest son. Elder Dixon Trujillo Blanco continued the business in Miami. In 1981, Griselda Blanco met Charles Cosby, who ran some “ crack houses ” in Oakland and obtained cocaine from her. In addition to the business relationship, a relationship also developed between the two. Cosby was the first African American to be temporarily admitted to the inner circle of her organization. Griselda Blanco had estimated annual sales of $ 40 million at the time. After Cosby had relationships with other women, Griselda Blanco ordered a fire attack on him as a warning. However, he was able to escape this ambush. The two were reconciled again after both recognized the advantages of their partnership; Cosby made $ 9 million in annual sales from the cocaine business thanks to their relationship. The two even planned to kidnap John F. Kennedy Jr. , but that didn't materialize. Later, because he too feared for his life, Cosby denounced Blanco to the Los Angeles police.

arrest

In 1984 DEA agents tracked Sascha Sparens and Bob Palombo Blanco in Newport Beach , and a year later she was arrested in Irvine .

It was not until 1993 that “Riverito”, a former contract killer, dared to testify against his boss Griselda Blanco, when he himself was already sentenced to death .

Blanco spent 20 of her 69 years in US - prisons and their prison sentence in 2004 was to Colombia after serving deported . Three of her four sons, who were deported to Colombia before her, were shot dead within a few days of their arrival. Her last photo was taken in 2007, where she can be seen at the airport in Bogotá.

death

On September 3, 2012, Griselda Blanco was shot twice in the head by two men on a passing motorcycle while leaving a butcher's shop in Medellín. She fell victim to the same method of killing that she is said to have ordered several times during her criminal time years ago.

Blancos sons

• Dixon Trujillo Blanco was the eldest son and was suspected of having committed contract killings for his mother's organization as a motorcycle killer. He later represented the organization in San Francisco, where he sold an average of 300 kilograms of cocaine per month. In 1985 he was arrested in Miami with his mother and two of his brothers and served ten years in prison. Dixon was murdered in Colombia.

• About Esnyder Trujillo Blanco was two years younger than Dixon and worked as a cocaine distributor for his family in Miami. He was responsible for an average monthly sales of 200 kilos of cocaine. After his arrest, he was also sentenced to ten years in prison. Uber was murdered in Colombia.

• Osvaldo “Chicky” Trujillo Blanco looked after the branch of the Trujillo Blanco organization in Los Angeles and had a monthly sales of around 500 kilograms of cocaine there. He was also serving the same sentence as his brothers. Osvaldo was shot dead in a Colombian nightclub in 1992.

• Michael Corleone Sepulveda Blanco , the youngest son, was allegedly not involved in the family's criminal business, still lives in Miami and runs the music label Xtorxion Records. He has been under house arrest since attempting to acquire cocaine in 2011.

Members of the Trujillo Blanco Organization

Members of Blancos organization were:

• Alfonso Lopez Trujillo - Blancos first husband, founder of the organization, murdered
• Alberto Bravo - Blancos second husband, murdered in 1975
• Pepe Cabrera - Cocaine distributor in the USA
• Jesús "Chucho" Castro - chief of the hit men, murdered by Ayala in 1982
• Jorge "Rivi" Ayala - contract killer, successor to Castro, is serving a life sentence
• Paco "Papo" Mejia - contract killer, survived an attack on Miami International Airport in 1982
• Jaime Bravo - hit man, nephew of Alberto Bravo
• Jorge Rivera - contract killer
• Miguel "Paco" Sepulveda - contract killer from New York
• Miguel Velez "Cumbamba" - contract killer from New York, moved to Miami with him, saw his victims with a chainsaw and served a life sentence. Other sources report that “Cumbamba” was Carlos Arango's nickname. “Cumbamba”, another killer of the Medellin cartel in Miami, was allegedly involved in various shootings with submachine guns, as well as presumably in the Dadeland Mall massacre. He was also accused of other methods of killing, for example he is said to have divided a human body in the bathtub in order to be able to transport it away more easily. So he had the reputation of one of the most dangerous men ("one of the most feared hitmen of Miami's cocaine wars.", Jeff Leen, Miami Herald) achieved the Blanco organization. Barry Seal was also murdered . Arango was arrested on February 20, 1986 on a highway in the US state of Mississippi and served his sentence in the infamous “Angola” prison (Louisiana State Penitentiary), where he died in August 2015 at the age of 66.
• Miguel "Miguelito" Perez - Cuban refugee, contract killer, carried out the attack on Mejia at Miami International Airport
• Carlos Varegas, Reinaldo Rodriguez, Oscar Murillo, Guillermo Velasquez, Guillermo Ferrales, Fernando Villegas, Diego Chico and Diego Benitez Escobar - belonged to Jorge Ayala's group
• John "El Flaco" Castrillion - introduced Ayala to the Trujillo Blanco organization

Cinematic, artistic and literary

• The documentary Cocaine Cowboys by Billy Corben, 2006, deals with, among other things, Griselda Blanco's rise and life in the 1970s and 80s in New York, Florida and California.
• Cocaine Cowboys 2 also tells the story of Charles Cosby, who did business with Griselda Blanco from 1991 and later also had a relationship with her during her prison sentence.
• On October 5, 2013 appeared with the 3rd episode of the 1st season of Gangster - Without scruples and morals , an episode with the title Griselda Blanco (OT: The Godmother: Griselda Blanco ).
• In the film Cocaine Godmother (2017), Griselda Blanco is played by Catherine Zeta-Jones .
• A previously untitled Griselda Blanco film by HBO with Jennifer Lopez and The Godmother from First Born Films with Catalina Sandino Moreno in the lead roles is also currently being produced . A release date of the two films is not yet known. (As of 2016)

literature

• Richard Smitten, The Godmother: The True Story of the Hunt for the Most Bloodthirsty Female Criminal in Our Time . Pocket Books, 1993, ISBN 0-671-70193-2 .
• Susana Castellanos De Zubiria: Mujeres perversas de la historia . Grupo Editorial Norma, 2009, ISBN 978-958-45-1536-0 .

Web links

• Griselda Blanco in the Internet Movie Database (English)
• DEA Congressional Testimony ( Memento from February 4, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) 1997 report of the Drug Enforcement Administration DEA
• Paradise Lost. In: Time. (via Miami in the 1980s)
• Website about the US drug war
• Photos of members of the Trujillo Blanco organization
• Colombia: Cocaine queen shot dead in slaughterhouse. In: Spiegel online. 4th September 2012.

Notes and individual references

1. ↑ ^{a b} sued America- facten.de Colombia: cocaine godmother Griselda Blanco. South America facts
2. ↑ garytormento.blogspot.com Griselda Blanco. Cuando el diablo tiene… on html garytormento.blogspot.com
3. ↑ John Hood: Riding high - The narrator of 'Cocaine Cowboys 2' discusses his drug-dealing past and the whereabouts of the real-life Michael Corleone. ( Memento from August 13, 2009 in the Internet Archive ) In: Metromix South Florida, July 25, 2008.
4. ^ Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa: Sicario . Blanvalet Verlag, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-7645-7666-9 , pp. 127-128.
5. ↑ ^{a b} Ethan Brown: El perfil de Griselda Blanco, la dama de la mafia. In: El Tiempo , September 3, 2012.
6. ↑ ^{a b} richardsmitten.com The Godmother on www.richardsmitten.com ( Memento from September 1, 2009 in the Internet Archive )
7. ↑ La narco reina sanguinaria (II). ( Memento of March 3, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: cronicaviva.com.pe
8. ↑ Video about Griselda Blanco and Alberto Bravo on Youtube . Excerpt from: Cocaine Cowboys II: Hustlin With The Godmother. USA, 2008.
9. ↑ US vs. Griselda Blanco and Alberto Bravo in cases.justia.com US Court
10. ^ Richard Smitten: The Godmother. Page 6. ( Memento of September 2, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) In: Sun Sentinel, February 19, 1989.
11. ↑ ^{a b c} corpse.org Queenpins of the Cali Cartel
12. ^ ^{A b} Richard Smitten: The Godmother. Page 4. ( Memento from August 20, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) In: Sun Sentinel, February 19, 1989.
13. ^ Richard Smitten: The Godmother. Page 3. ( Memento of August 17, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) In: Sun Sentinel, February 19, 1989.
14. ↑ ^{a b} Toni Locy: For Jailed Kingpin, A Cocaine Kinship. In: The Washington Post , Aug. 19, 1996; Page A01.
15. ^ Suspect is called Cocaine Queen. In: New York Times. February 22, 1980.
16. ↑ ^{a b c} panachereport.com Female Scarface
17. ↑ La Madrina, fiera sedienta de sangre (II) ( Memento from February 11, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: cronicaviva.com.pe
18. ↑ openjurist.org United States vs. Saldarriaga
19. ^ Richard Smitten: The Godmother. Page 5. ( Memento from August 20, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) In: Sun Sentinel, February 19, 1989.
20. ↑ Ethan Brown: Searching for the Godmother (PDF; 5.5 MB). In: Maxim (English language edition), July 2008, pages 94-98.
21. ↑ Dark Savante: Griselda Blanko. ( Memento from December 15, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Forum post on Serial Killer Central in the forum "Unkown Killer Of The Week".
22. ↑ Griselda Blanco - the Miami Godmother. ( Memento of March 24, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: Altered Dimensions - Official website for the Institute for Paranormal and Esoteric Research (IPAER).
23. ↑ ^{a b} Dea History Book 1975–1980. ( Memento of January 14, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) at: justice.gov
24. ↑ ^{a b} Gerald Posner: Cocaine Cowboys. ( Memento of March 6, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) In: The Daily Beast , October 12, 2009
25. ↑ Miami in the 80's - Dadeland Shooting - Cocaine Cowboys. On: YouTube , accessed November 2, 2018.
26. ↑ latinamericanstudies.org
27. ↑ time.com
28. ↑ nytimes.com
29. ↑ accessmylibrary.com
30. ↑ Rafael Hernández, Antonio Aja Díaz, Jesús Arboleya Cervera, Andrés Gómez and Magali Martín Quijano: El Mariel treinta años después. ( Memento from January 10, 2017 in the Internet Archive ) In: Temas No. 68, October - December 2011.
31. ↑ colombia: Griselda Blanco, The Return Of The Black Widow. ( Memento of July 27, 2013 in the Internet Archive ) on: poorbuthappy.com
32. ^ "Cocaine Cowboys" La verdadera historia del vicio de Miami. ( Memento of August 12, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) at: univision.com
33. ↑ ^{a b c d} Richard Smitten: The Godmother. Page 7. ( Memento from December 23, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) In: Sun Sentinel, February 19, 1989.
34. ↑ insightpromotions.blogspot.com ( Memento from May 11, 2011 in the Internet Archive )
35. ^ DEA Congressional Testimony. ( Memento of October 21, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) at: usdoj.gov
36. ^ Complot contra Kennedy Jr. (IV). ( Memento of March 8, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) at: cronicaviva.com.pe
37. ↑ DRUG BARONESS (BILLIONAIRESS) & THE BLACK DRUG KINGPIN. From: Panache Report - Black Underworld.
38. ↑ 1988 United States of America, Appellee, v. Griselda Blanco, defendant appellant in cases.justia.com
39. ↑ redorbit.com
40. ↑ The last known photo of Griselda Blanco from 2007
41. ↑ Colombian "cocaine queen" shot ( memento from September 6, 2012 in the Internet Archive )
42. ↑ miamiherald.com ( Memento of the original from September 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. 
43. ↑ Michael Corleone Blanco: The Son Of Cocaine Cowboys' Griselda Blanco Speaks! ( Memento of August 5, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) at: allhiphop.com
44. ↑ blogs.miaminewtimes.com
45. ↑ possibly identical to "Riverito"
46. ↑ gopetition.com
47. ^ History's Deadliest Assassins & Secret Agents. OMG Lane. 18th October 2017
48. ↑ 15 Deadly Hitmen Who've Put Hundreds To Sleep. The Richest
49. ↑ Griselda Blanco's Other Favorite Hitman Dies in Prison. Extra news feed
50. ↑ Moviepilot - Jennifer Lopez becomes the drug queen for HBO film