Griselda Blanco was born on the 15th February 1943, in Cartagena, Colombia and died on the 3rd September, 2012 in Medellín, Colombia. She was a major illegal drug trader known variously under the names The Black Widow, The Godmother and La Dama de la Mafia (The Lady of the Mafia). Drug dealing was the main source of Griselda Blanco’s net worth as well as the main reason for her death.
Wonder how rich was The Lady of the Mafia? It was estimated that at the time of her death the net worth of Griselda Blanco was equal to $2 billion.
Griselda Blanco Net Worth $2 Billion
To begin with, she experienced a tough childhood, as she ran away from their home with her mother being just three years old. At the age of just 11, she committed her first murder as a result of a failed kidnap attempt. At 14 she ran away from her mother, who regularly physically assaulted her. The girl became involved in prostitution and worked in the industry until she was 20 years old. In the 1970s, Blanco and her husband, Alberto Bravo, moved to USA and settled down in the suburb of Queens, New York City, establishing a major cocaine business in this place, which added millions to the total size of Griselda Blanco’s net worth.
During her criminal career, Blanco was known under the nickname Black Widow referring to female spider of the same name, which kills the male after mating, referring to the murder of those who were her husbands. In 1975, Griselda Blanco was charged with federal drug conspiracy charges with 30 subordinates ruled by her. It was known as the largest cocaine case in history, but Blanco fled to Colombia before she could be tried.
However, in the late 1970s Griselda Blanco returned to Miami, Florida, and was notorious for participating in violence related to drug dealing known as the Cocaine Cowboy Wars that hit Miami in the late 1970s and early 1980s. In 1984, she moved to California as the drug dealers’ war in Miami was too dangerous. In 1985, she was arrested, charged with numerous felonies, and sentenced to spend more than 10 years in prison, but with other charges subsequently brought, she wasn’t released until 2004, after spending twenty years in prison, following which she was deported to Colombia.
In popular culture, portraits of Griselda Blanco might be seen in several documentary films, including “Cocaine Cowboys” (2006) and “Cocaine Cowboys 2” (2008). She is portrayed by Ana Serradilla in the telenovela “La Viuda Negra” (2014). The book “American Desperado” (2011) was written by Jon Roberts in which Blanco is also one of the main characters. Another book “La Patrona de Pablo Escobar de José Guarnizo” is written nbased on the biographical facts o Blanco. Currently, the film “The Godmother” is in production which will also tell the story of Blanco.
In her less-than-private personal life, Griselda Blanco was first married to Carlos Trujillo, with whom she had four children named Michael, Uber, Osvaldo and Dixon. Her second husband was Darwis Saavedra, with whom she had a son named David Saavedra Jesus Santos. She allegedly had both killed, and unsurprisingly perhaps, all her children were killed while participating in drug dealing activities organized by their mother. Before her death in 2012, Griselda Blanco was last seen at the El Dorado International Airport, Bogota. She herself was killed in a drive-by shooting in Medellin, Columbia, another victim – if that is an appropriate expression for her – of drug-gang warfare.
