Netflix's Griselda: What to Know About Miami's Queen of Cocaine

She was known by several names: Miami's Queen of Cocaine, La Madrina (The Godmother), the Black Widow.

But underneath the hype and tall tales, who was Griselda Blanco?

On January 25, Netflix released its six-episode miniseries Griselda, chronicling Blanco's life and the vast drug empire she built during Miami's bloody drug wars of the 1970s and '80s. Created by the same team behind Narcos, the series stars Colombia-born Modern Family actress Sofía Vergara as the ruthless coke lordess.

Looking back at coverage from the depths of New Times' archive, here's what you need to know about Miami's Reina de la Cocaína:

Primer: Killer Instinct

Born into deep poverty in Cartagena, Colombia, Blanco was only 11 when she allegedly committed her first murder — fatally shooting a child from an upscale neighborhood whom she kidnapped and attempted to ransom, according to an account by her longtime romantic partner.

Blanco moved to the U.S. in the 1960s and lived with her sons in Queens, New York, one of whom she named Michael Corleone, an homage to her obsession with the Godfather films. Dubbed the Black Widow for her purported penchant for whacking her husbands, Blanco was accused of orchestrating a handful of murders between Miami and New York City, including massacres in busy shopping malls and drive-by shootings in broad daylight.

"If you bought drugs from her and didn't pay her, she'd kill you," a former Miami homicide detective said in filmmaker Billy Corben's 2008 Cocaine Cowboys sequel. "And if she bought drugs from you and didn't pay you, she'd also kill you."

Read: "Meet the Cocaine Queen"

What was her involvement in Miami's drug wars?

Blanco oversaw a billion-dollar drug empire, at one point reportedly smuggling thousands of pounds of cocaine into Miami on a monthly basis.

She simultaneously ran a lingerie shop in Medellín, Colombia, where she custom-designed bras with special pockets to stash cocaine for low-key smuggling into Miami.

Read: "Michael Corleone Blanco Lives in the Shadow of His Cocaine-Queen Mother"

Did she ever get busted?

After burning her last bridges during her years-long reign as Miami's most dreaded drug queen, Blanco fled the city in 1984. In 1985, federal drug agents busted her in her California home; she was convicted the following year for conspiring to manufacture, import, and distribute cocaine.

While local prosecutors tried to charge her with three murders in 1994, the case fell apart after Miami-Dade County State Attorney's Office employees were caught having phone sex with the prosecution's central witness. In 1998, Blanco pleaded guilty to three counts of second-degree murder and was sentenced to two decades in prison.

She was released from prison in 2004 and deported to Medellín, where she lived under the radar until her 2012 murder.

Read: "Prosecution Complex"

How was she killed?

On September 3, 2012, while she was leaving an open-air butcher shop in Medellín with a $150 cut of meat, two masked men rode up on the 69-year-old graying Blanco and shot her in the head in an attack that resembled the style of motorcycle assassination that was once Blanco's own signature method of extermination.

Read: "Griselda Blanco, Miami's Cocaine Queen, Assassinated In Medellin Butcher Shop"

Who is her surviving son?

Blanco's son, Michael Corleone Blanco (AKA Michael Sepulveda), resides in Miami, and he does not shy away from his mother's past, describing himself on social media as the "proud son of Griselda Blanco."

Between 2019 and 2021, he was featured in the VH1 reality show Cartel Crew, which followed Michael and others who had family ties to prominent members of drug cartels.

More than a decade ago, he appeared to be following in his mother's footsteps when he allegedly tried to buy five kilos from an undercover cop using $10,000 in cash, a motorcycle, and a diamond necklace inscribed with the record label title Kill All Rats. He was charged with two felony counts of cocaine trafficking and conspiracy to traffic cocaine in 2011.

Court records show that after pleading guilty, he received seven years of probation in 2014. He was re-arrested in September 2015 after police claimed he violated his probation by calling his then-wife on her cell phone and threatening to kill her for leaving him. A judge ordered that he complete a 26-week anger management course and, in 2018, granted his motion to terminate his probation early.

Michael recently sued Vergara and Netflix in an attempt to block the release of Griselda, claiming the show's creators used his "private artistic literary work" without permission or credit.

Read: "Griselda Blanco's Son Michael Corleone Still Faces Cocaine Trafficking Charge in Miami"

Is this the first show about Blanco?

The Netflix series isn't the first time Blanco's life has been featured on-screen.

The wild and bloody tale of Blanco's life has been rehashed in a handful of films, including Billy Corben and Rakontur's 2008 documentary Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin' With the Godmother and the 2018 Lifetime biopic Cocaine Godmother starring Catherine Zeta-Jones.

Read: "Who Was Griselda Blanco, the Miami Drug Queen Profiled in Lifetime's Cocaine Godmother?"