This relentless pursuit seems to have paid off, with the docufiction series on the drug baroness rising above other programs, annihilating all competition, much like the terrifying godmother against her adversaries. However, while many aspects of Griselda Blanco’s life are portrayed, others are glossed over in favor of the main themes.
This is particularly evident with regards to the salary of the “cocaine queen,” which is only approached in an evasive manner. We know that she ended up rich and powerful, but to what extent?
Such sums earned her the reputation of being wealthier than the famous gangster Al Capone, whose fortune was estimated at around 1.3 billion dollars. In the Netflix limited series, Griselda Blanco is shown leaving Colombia in the 1980s to start her own drug empire from (almost) nothing.
But in reality, her distribution network extended beyond Miami: from New York to California and beyond, the Godmother’s merchandise was found. In addition to her flourishing import-export business, it is estimated that Griselda Blanco had built up a solid real estate portfolio: around 500 million dollars, including 120 million dollars’ worth of properties seized by US authorities.
Her case was then transferred to the court in New York, where she was found guilty, with an initial sentence of 15 years. She was also convicted of homicide after a lengthy trial process.
But the Godmother faced health problems around 2002. This was enough for an agreement on her release in 2004, sending her back to Medellín in Colombia—the city she had initially sought to escape.