Speaker 1: 0:00

Welcome back everyone. This is Jules and this is True Crime and Headlines. We are in episode 18, part two of three on Colombian drug lord Griselda Blanco. If you've not yet listened to part one, please go back and do so. It's a quick episode, just under 25 minutes. And then hop on back here to part two and I'll get you caught up to speed. I promise I'm not going anywhere. Thank you for joining me. If you're new, hi, I am so glad that you found me here and I hope you stick around.

Speaker 1: 0:29

I like to jump right into the cases fairly quickly, but I will take a moment to thank everyone who has gone on, wherever they're listening to my podcast and has left me a five star review and or writing. You guys, the more I grow, the farther we can go with our cases. So thank you so much. Also, if you'd like to support the show, you may do so by going to my website, true Crime and Headlinescom and click buy us a coffee. All fines go directly to my investigative efforts and my podcast costs and, as always, y'all all my sources used in today's research will be available on True Crime and Headlinescom. Of course, I cite my sources. Let's go.

Speaker 1: 1:30

Griselda Blanco Restrepo was an infamous Colombian born woman who rose to power as a top drug lord in the United States during the 1970s and 1980s. Let's do a very quick recap to get you caught up to speed if it's been a week since you last listened to part one, with hundreds of murders attributed to Griselda and her drug empire. She used innovative systems and ruled by instilling fear of her ruthless business dealings and her reputation for murder. Today we pick up the case at Griselda Blanco in the late 70s 1975 to be exact in Colombia, after she shot her second husband, alberto Bravo, in the head and thus is able to take over the Alberto Bravo organization. With two husbands dead, griselda will soon become known as the Black Widow, and by killing her second husband, alberto Bravo, who was one of the top cocaine leaders at the time, she showed no remorse in what she would do to someone whom she suspected was double crossing her, even if it was her own husband. This killing solidified Griselda's new position to fill Alberto's shoes in the Bravo organization and to take over lead of their 1,500 plus dealers working for them, or rather now just working for her. But she's still in Colombia.

Speaker 1: 2:59

Now recall she fled from New York after Alberto and she were indicted on conspiracy to distribute cocaine. But now she has killed a prominent member of the Medellin cartel, her husband, which, you might recall, was run by Pablo Escobar. So should she fear her life, should she have to flee from Colombia, will there be repercussions? As it would turn out, griselda would earn respect from fear of her ruthless murder tactics to get what she wanted. While she stayed in her town, medellin, with her three sons, she continued to rule her cocaine empire out of her lingerie factory by smuggling cocaine to the States through specially sewn pockets in the lining of the lingerie. It was even reported throughout the years that Griselda had the heels of women's high heels hollowed out in order to easily transport cocaine across the borders, as that was not a suspected vestibule of cocaine at the time and it was on people who seemed rather unsuspecting. And that is one of the reasons why she is considered a pioneer of drug trafficking, if you will or if you don't, if you won't. As she continues to build and run her cocaine empire in Medellin, she is doing so alongside Pablo Escobar and his operations, but she's more of a subset of his operations than a rival. After all, she did start out working with the Medellin cartel, working for Escobar's cartel, so she's really an extension of his cartel.

Speaker 1: 4:52

Now, as her reputation and her power continued to grow, so did her interest in her bodyguard, a man named Dario Sepulveda, whom she would end up marrying in 1978. Now I do want to go on record by saying some people called Dario her bodyguard and some people say that he was an assassin who was sent to kill her and did not, and then they fell in love. Either way, he was still bad news. Not a great guy does not have a beautiful, clean record, as we could obviously assume based on the company he keeps. Either way, they fall in love. So Dario and Griselda fall in love and y'all he becomes husband number three. The two would go on to have a son together after they got married in 1978, making her son, michael Corleone Blanco, griselda's fourth child and fourth son. Now this is going to be her last child and her only child that she will share with Dario Sepulveda.

Speaker 1: 6:01

Now I do want to point out the obvious. If you are aware of the Godfather series, michael Corleone is a main character's name in the Godfather series and Griselda Blanco purposely named her son after a main character in the movie. Actually it was a book. It started off as a book, but we'll get into that. No, we won't. That's just my nerdy input for right now. You cannot turn off the English teacher. You just can't meet. We tried. Michael Corleone was the whole name, like first and last name, and she named her son Michael Corleone Blanco. So that just is a testament to how into that kind of gangster type, mafia type lifestyle she was and how sought after it was and glorified it was for her. So Michael Corleone Blanco is her fourth child.

Speaker 1: 7:02

She was powerful, you guys. She had control over thousands of dealers under her and having control over millions of dollars that she and her second husband, alberto Bravo, had previously made from the conjoined cocaine empire, griselda continued her operation with cocaine and was working frequently out of Miami. The cocaine demand was booming at the time. Toward the end of the 80s, as it transitioned out of the marijuana demand with Dario and her sons, griselda moved the family to Miami where she would soon engage in the infamous Coke Wars of Miami, called the cocaine cowboy wars. This was a war between cartels fighting for control over the cocaine market in the areas, and Griselda was determined to have control and power. There were multiple different operations and leaders trying to work the Miami circuit, but Griselda would soon put hits on them to take out the competition.

Speaker 1: 8:10

Through this time period, some accredit the quote motorcycle drive-by killings to Griselda, but without confirmation, and you guys know how so much of Griselda's story might just be folklore. That has changed and become more grandiose over the years after each retelling. It could just be folklore Through this time period. You guys some accredit the quote motorcycle drive-by quote killings to Griselda. So what are the motorcycle drive-by killings If you don't know? I did not realize that this would come back to Griselda. So when I heard this, it made complete sense though, because we're calling this the cocaine cowboy wars and what we have is two men on a motorcycle the one in the back is in control of the weapons, shooting at people while they drive by in broad daylight, which is not dissimilar to old West shootouts or drive-throughs of gangster, mafia war, turf war type situations. So it totally vibes with what Griselda was really interested in.

Speaker 1: 9:21

Although there is so much unknown about Griselda and separating fact from fiction has proven to me to be very difficult in this case we do know about the Cocaine Cowboy Wars, also known as the Miami Drug Wars and before we learn about Griselda Blanco's next move, I do want to take a little bit of time and share about these insane drug wars. You guys, the basic 411 on the Miami drug war is that it took place in Miami during the 70s and 80s and it was between the drug cartels and the federal United States government. Now many people believe that it was the feds versus the cartels. But don't make a wrongful assumption that all cocaine cartels stick together in their fight against the feds in their cocaine battles. Just like I shared earlier, cartel leaders want to control over the cocaine markets and leaders like Griselda would lead cartel versus cartel, making Miami an insanely and intensely dangerous place to be. An article from the Independent UK quotes the DEA from a statement made in 1993.

Speaker 1: 10:33

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 Pistilleros. 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 Pistilleros assassinated a rival by riding up to him on a motorcycle and shooting him point blank. End quote.

Speaker 1: 10:56

Now this would be during the height of the cocaine cowboy war slash Miami drug wars. The Medellin cartel was quickly taking over the drug scene in Miami and into the 1980s Miami was attributed to bringing in 70% of the United States' cocaine. Prior to the Colombians taking over the scene, however, the Cuban mafia had previously reigned. Now the number of murders that occurred during the 1970s and early 1980s during the cocaine cowboy wars is staggering. And what hopefully will not come as a surprise now, after we've learned quite a bit of all these heinous acts, is that most of South Florida, most of the deaths in South Florida, were attributed to Griselda Blanco and all the hits she ordered by the Pistilleros to follow through on. And, as we know, we cannot prove this, but we can easily believe it, as this was her turf and she was fighting for control over the other leaders and she would stop at nothing to gain it. Essentially, the cocaine drug wars in Miami was one big turf war where the true fight was over money. Millions and millions of dollars were at stake.

Speaker 1: 12:15

If Griselda was to lose control of her cocaine routes in Miami, you know, the possibility to becoming richer and richer and richer to Griselda was endless. The quick idea of the number of murders in Miami by year in 1979, 349 murders, in 1980, 573, and in 1981, there were 621 murders concentrated in Florida, zoom in in the Miami area. Wargs were said to be overfilled and they were not able to take all of these bodies, so they had to outsource and obtain a refrigerated truck to place overflow of bodies in, and this was said to have lasted until 1981. And because we have the influx of murder crime, what does Miami need to do? Well, they need to hire more law enforcement Now to entice the people to apply for the police force. It said that they relaxed their requirements, slash screening process, and I believe that this was also in order to increase the number of applicants that would get through, because they were so desperate for more hands on deck. And where they gained in numbers of new officers, they also allegedly gained in police corruption.

Speaker 1: 13:35

Griselda is accredited with being a catalyst to the drug wars, as on July 11th 1971, she ordered her men to kill fellow and well-known Colombian drug lord in plain daylight in the middle of the afternoon, in a gangster-esque style shootout. Now, she sent her men in a van which was disguised as a party rental van. It was actually outfitted with multiple different weapons and her men then went and opened fire on the rival drug leader and his bodyguard, killing them both. It's brain bullets all over the Daedalyn Mall. This event would become known as the Daedalyn Mall Massacre and it's where the name Cooking Cowboys originated, as the police on the scene compared the shootings in Plainside in daylight to the Old West shootouts. It was a miracle that nobody else besides the intended targets were killed either. Nbc News quoted a Miami homicide detective at the time, nelson Andrew, who would later go on to become the Miami police chief, by saying quote what we learned from the Daedalyn shooting is that it's real. Andrew said these guys will go out there and if they want to hit or kill someone, it doesn't matter where it happens, who else is around or the time of day that it happens. They're going to get their target and everyone else. Better be careful and be aware of their surroundings. End quote. Griselda would order her men to kill anybody in the vicinity of their hits men, women, even children.

Speaker 1: 15:12

Now, while this is going on, griselda's marriage is collapsing before her eyes. She not only has the increased stress from the drug wars on her hands, but she's also in very deep with cocaine. There's a bit of an unspoken rule when dealing cocaine, and it's this you don't use your own product. Well, she didn't follow that rule and she was very addicted to cocaine. She was so addicted to drugs that when she moved to Miami, her face had changed so much that she actually wasn't recognized by federal agents, which I guess was to her advantage at the time. Not only was Griselda eager to kill anyone at will, she seemed to delight in the power of having people kill, just having them killed, and she would have them killed often and often without reason. She was living a very unstable and unhinged lifestyle, but she would just continue to plummet further and further to her own demise. And there comes a point where Griselda is at top of the cocaine world, making hundreds of millions of dollars each month. Yet she is losing more and more control of herself. In an article by Nick Thompson from Vice, she would force men and women to have sex at gunpoint. She'd host a botched orgies at her Miami mansion where she kept a German shepherd guard dog named Hitler. She had eight strippers killed because she suspected they'd slept with her.

Speaker 1: 16:42

Then third husband Sepulveda, end quote. Now, around this time in 1983, dario Sepulveda, her husband, he decides to leave Griselda. Now recall, this is her third husband. He allegedly feared her unpredictable nature and her homicidal tendencies. Yeah, go figure right, especially since they had a young son. Remember Michael Corleone Blanco. It's important to note that her husband wasn't a choir boy. He was absolutely involved in the crime world. He was involved, he was enabling and he was a participant. However, it appeared, he cared more for the safety of his son, more so than he cared for the cocaine business, something that cannot be said for Griselda at the time.

Speaker 1: 17:28

Based on her actions, a mutual friend of both Griselda and her husband, dario, claims to have witnessed the final blowout fight between the husband and wife, which resulted in Dario throwing his hands in the air and calling it quits. The man's name was Max and in 1989, he tells the South Florida Sun Sentinel quote it took place in my living room in Davy, florida. Dario had been running around with a topless dancer in Fort Lauderdale and Griselda found out. Dario said to hell with it and that he was taking the kid to Columbia, end quote. You know what I could piece together from multiple different sources who kind of all report somewhat the same story is that Dario and Griselda could not agree on a custody arrangement. So, mixed with the contentious relationship between the two, this custody battle which obviously this was not a court sanctioned legal battle and mixed with Dario's infidelity, griselda's drug use you know, homicidal tendencies, things were not looking good for Darryl giving Griselda's track record.

Speaker 1: 18:39

He then takes their shared son, young Michael Corleone Blanco, then his very young boy, and he flees home to Columbia. He flees from Griselda with their son. You know, what baffles me is that he knowingly returns to Columbia, to Medellin, where Griselda also rules and has violent connections throughout the area. You know, out for vengeance for taking their son from her, for leaving her, griselda, think, characteristically orders an assassination, hit on Darryl's depulveda. This is what happens. Two men dressed as police officers in Columbia allegedly pulled Darryl over, subsequently shooting him in front of his young son, michael. Young Michael was allegedly holding his father in his arms when his father took his last breath. Michael was then delivered back to Miami to an awaiting Griselda Blanco.

Speaker 1: 19:40

The UK Mirror reports that Michael's life was surrounded by violence and danger Quote in a fractured life split between Medellin, florida and California, he had armed guards day and night End. Quote. You know it's not a hard assumption to make that Griselda's sons had multiple hits out on their lives, as I am curious as to what extreme and extent Griselda had to take, had to go, in order to keep her son safe. At this time Griselda was making approximately $80 million a month, all from trafficking cocaine and dominating the market by not only eliminating her competition through we'll just say it like it is, you know murder, but killing anyone that she felt crossed. Her could cross her, or anyone she didn't feel that she wanted to have any debts to she didn't feel like paying up. Kill him. The UK Medium reports quote. One former associate said, quote she had the worst temper I ever saw. She ordered death the way other people order pizza. End quote. And she didn't just make millions, she spent millions.

Speaker 1: 20:54

A Britannica article on Griselda says, quote she enjoyed a lavish lifestyle that included luxury homes and hedonistic parties. End quote. I wanted to paint a better picture of this lavish lifestyle so I did some more dicking on what I could hopefully find and deliver for you. But it looks like most of the reports, as is the pattern of anything on Griselda. The stories vary from report to report and bounce from what could be folklore to what could be fact, but the baseline is fairly consistent Griselda spent millions on her parties and was known for having multiple luxury cars and even exotic animals. Some reports even claim that she had a gold plated machine gun, but then again, so much has been left to wonder what is folklore and what is true. A Columbia reports article says on the magnitude of Griselda's assets, quote current estimates propose that Griselda's fortune may include as many as 200 properties, including large farms in Yoruba and the states in San Cristobal, medellin, bayo and Guivado. Though most were purchased in cash, some of the homes involved in the investigation are still receiving monthly mortgage payments from various sources. End quote.

Speaker 1: 22:22

Now what is absolutely devastating is the number of innocent people who were killed in the crosshairs, as Griselda notoriously ordered her hitmen to kill anyone in the vicinity of the intended target as well. And it's this order which will bring one of four murder charges against Griselda. But not before. She begins to spiral out of control. She begins to lose the respect of the people who once worked and feared her. This is the beginning of her ultimate downward spiral of demise. She will go into hiding across the country to hide from the people who once feared her.

Speaker 1: 23:08

We end part three next week, because I'm going to take you inside of the operations that Griselda ran. I'm going to take you inside the henchmen and how that operated. I'm also going to take you behind the scenes into her family life and take you along as Griselda gets taken down and ultimately gets gunned down. Join me part three or three next week. Thank you guys for being here and, as always, you're loved, you're wanted and your butt looks great. And don't do cocaine and late. I want to have a coffee. My mama is a podcaster, I too.