Who is Griselda? The true story behind Sofia Vergara’s new Netflix show

While the Netflix series sees Griselda call authorities to arrest her, in reality Griselda Blanco was arrested at her home in Irvine, California on 17 February 1985 after being tracked by DEA agents for roughly ten years.

On her arrest, agent Bob Palombo told The Independent “She was pretty tough and standoffish, a typical Colombian move I would say, nonchalant, not really showing any real emotion, but when we put her in the car, I was in the backseat with her, and the other agent was driving. We drove up to Los Angeles, and when we got close to the courthouse is when she became visibly shaken.”

She was convicted of one count of conspiracy to manufacture, import into the United States, and distribute cocaine, with Blanco serving a 15-year sentence.

In 1994, Blanco was also charged for the death of a former cartel member’s son Johnny Castro, a two-year-old boy who was tragically mistakenly killed in a Blanco-ordered hit. In 1998 she pled guilty to the second-degree murder charges, leading to her prison sentence being reduced by six years.

How did Griselda Blanco die?

According to the BBC, in 2004 Blanco was released from prison and retired from the cocaine business, being deported to Colombia. But while may have been out of the game she still had a lot of enemies around, with her ultimately being shot by a gunman in 2012 as she left a butcher shop in Medellín.

As she left the building an assassin on a motorbike shot her twice, notably the same tactic that Blanco’s hitmen allegedly used at the pinnacle of her career.

What happened to Griselda’s children?

Blanco had for sons with her two husbands: Osvaldo, Uber and Dixon Trujillo, as well as Michael Corleone Blanco.

According to Biography.com, Blanco’s three older sons Dixon, Uber, and Osvaldo all went on to follow in their mother’s footsteps and become drug traffickers, with each dying before she did.

Blanco’s youngest son, Michael, however is still alive, and recently filed a lawsuit against Netflix and Vergara over Griselda.