Black Widow Griselda Blanco, arguably the most important figure in the late 70s, early 80s Miami drug trade, was gunned down outside a butcher shop in Colombia yesterday by two assassins on motorcycles. Whether a coincidence or well-thought out middle finger, the method will go down as a fitting end for the woman widely credited with inventing the drive by motorcycle assassination.
The godmother of cocaine first came to the attention of US authorities in the early 70s after she set up a cocaine distribution ring in Queens. She was indicted in ’75 but fled to Colombia alongside her husband/ business partner. A few months later, after allegedly discovering her spouse had taken extra for himself, she murdered him and six of his bodyguards in a parking lot in Bogota. Shortly thereafter, she settled in Miami and engineered an empire. At her height, she was allegedly pulling in more than ten million dollars a month in profit and having her enemies killed on whims.
In ’85, Blanco was finally arrested. At the time, authorities estimated she’d made billions and may have murdered as many as two hundred people including three of her husbands, but very few of the charges wound up sticking. She was released from prison eight years ago and moved back to Colombia to live out the rest of her life. According to Univision, she was only sixty-nine when she passed Monday and leaves behind a large family including a son named Michael Corleone Blanco.
