Griselda Blanco was the female Pablo Escobar of Columbia, also known as the 'Cocaine Queen'.
Blanco had killed three husbands, organised bisexual orgies party and drug-fuelled gatherings in Miami.
The coke queen was shot dead by a motorcycle-driving assassin in 2012, who aimed two bullets straight into her brain at Medellin Street, Columbia.
Advert
Being a part of the billion-dollar Columbian drug smuggling ring, Blanco was a merciless assassin who killed people at the 'drop of a hat', including her three husbands, a two-year-old boy, and families of dozens.
Griselda Blanco earned the title 'The Black Widow', and was born on 15 February 1943 in a shanty slum of Cartagena to an alcoholic mother who beat her savagely.
She became a prostitute and started pick-pocketing at a young age, and is believed to have kidnapped and killed an innocent ten-year-old boy when his family failed to pay the ransom.
Advert
A retired DEA agent, Bob Palombo called Blanco a 'chameleon', due to her ability to change her appearance frequently and remarked her as 'pretty tough and standoffish'.
Back in 1993, Palombo described the Medellin cartel drug lord's life and said: “Griselda loved killings. Bodies lined the streets of Miami as a result of her feuds. She gathered around her a group of henchmen known as the Pistoleros. Initiation into the group was earned by killing someone and cutting off a body part as proof of the deed. It is said that one of the Pistoleros assassinated a rival by riding up to him on a motorcycle and shooting him point-blank.
“She not only killed rivals and wayward lovers, but used murder as a means of cancelling debts she didn’t want to pay. A particularly bloody massacre that took place in July 1979 in a Miami shopping centre became known as the Dadeland Massacre.”
Blanco was considered a 'bigger fish' than Medellin Cartel’s founder, Carlos Lehder, and topped the top 5 rogue list of the DEA's first 20 years.
Advert
The 'innovative businesswoman' was once earning £63 million monthly by smuggling cocaine into the United States, where she equipped bras and girdles with hidden compartments to smuggle drugs, while also recruiting couriers to transport drugs in bulk.
The 'Queenpin' had a tumultuous personal life. She married her husband, Carlos Trujillo, in her teenage years but ordered his assassination over a business dispute in the early seventies.
Moving forward, she went on to marry drug trafficker, Alberto Bravo, who introduced her to the cocaine trade smuggled to the US. However, she shot him in the face and killed him in 1975 after learning he stole her money.
Blanco married her third and last husband, Dario Sepulveda, left him in 1983, and later assassinated him in Columbia.
Advert
The 69-year-old was arrested by DEA agents in her home in 1985, and charged with one count of conspiracy to manufacture, import into the United States and distribute cocaine.
In 1986, she was found guilty and was sentenced to 15 years in prison.
It is known that Jennifer Lopez is set to star as Blanco in the third feature film, 'The Godmother' alongside Elaine Goldsmith-Thomas and Benny Medina. However, Catherine Zeta-Jones had already played Blanco in a lifetime movie Cocaine Godmother: The Griselda Blanco Story. The previous documentary films made on her were Cocaine Cowboys and Cocaine Cowboys 2.
JLo said: “I’ve been forever fascinated by the story of Griselda Blanco and jumped at the chance to play her on screen.
Advert
“She is all things we look for in storytelling and dynamic characters – notorious, ambitious, conniving, chilling. In a genre dominated by legendary kingpins, I’m eager to shine a spotlight on this anti-hero and excited to partner with STX for the third time so we can bring this compelling, complicated story to life.”
Featured Image Credit: AJ Pics / Alamy Stock PhotoTopics: Drugs, Pablo Escobar, Jennifer Lopez, TV and Film, Documentaries, True Crime