If you’ve been watching the scintillating Netflix series Griselda, you’ll know that the show opens with an alleged quote from Pablo Escobar about Miami’s cocaine queen.
The quote reads: “The only man I was ever afraid of was a woman named Griselda Blanco,” which is pretty bad-ass. Whether or not it’s actually attributable to him isn’t certain, but people in the drug world are notorious for lying, so we’re not going to complain if the creators of the show took some liberties in this instance.
One thing we can actually dig into was whether or not Escobar, who would build a cocaine empire so vast it practically had the GDP of a small nation, actually knew Blanco. Her time in the business preceded him by a few years, but given they were both Colombian and both in the same line of work, there is a real chance they overlapped.
So, did Griselda Blanco know Pablo Escobar? Find out below!
Who was Pablo Escobar?
Pablo Escobar rose to prominence in the mid-70s as the head of the all-powerful Medellin cartel. Aside from moving massive amounts of the lucrative product, he was known for his ruthlessness and using extreme violence to get his way. He was also famous in his native Medellin for using his vast wealth to provide services to the poor, and he even briefly joined the Colombian Congress. At the height of his notoriety, he was able to use his huge influence to negotiate a deal with the Colombian government and build a “prison” of his own design, in which he resided.
As his business grew so did his paranoia, culminating in the bombing of a passenger plane full of innocents. In the early 1990s he went on the run and began an insurgency campaign in Medellin. His hometown hideout was eventually raided and he was killed, ending his reign of terror. However, his legend has lived on, and his story has been depicted countless times, most famously in the Netflix series Narcos.
Who was Griselda Blanco, the subject of Netflix’s Griselda?
Griselda Blanco also rose to prominence in the 1970s as one of the biggest names in Miami’s cocaine trade, and a key participant in the famously bloody Miami Drug War. The Colombian was pretty much the only woman with influence in the ultra macho world of cartels, and like Escobar was known for ruthlessness. Although she didn’t quite gain his level of wealth and notoriety, she became incredibly wealthy, being worth tens of millions at the height of her powers.
Blanco had a tough life, and before she began her own operation in Miami had been working with her husband moving cocaine in New York. She allegedly killed (or ordered the killing of) all three of her husbands, as well as ordering the hits of a number of other associates, witnesses, and rivals. She was arrested by DEA agents in 1985, and remained in prison in the U.S. until she was granted compassionate leave in 2004 after a heart attack.
She was returned to Colombia, and was assassinated outside a butcher’s shop in 2012. The killer drove past her on a motorcycle and shot her twice, ironically mimicking one of her preferred methods of execution during the Miami Drug War.
Did Griselda Blanco know Pablo Escobar?
Given how closely related their businesses were, it seems like Blanco and Escobar should have known each other intimately. However, as is usually the case with these kinds of shady figures, there’s not much known about their relationship.
They would have definitely been aware of each other, and it has been confirmed by a number of sources that they would have met during the late 1970s, while Blanco was at the height of her powers and Escobar still reaching his. He was only 15 at the time, so not quite the plane-bombing, larger-than-life figure he became. So, that quote that opens Griselda could very well be true.
There are also some reports that Griselda became a member of the Medellin Cartel, but these are conflicting and unsubstantiated. What is certain is that Escobar’s smuggling routes were used by Blanco, so in that sense they were acquainted. With that said, if you’re hoping for a crossover series between Narcos and Griselda, you’re unlikely to get it.