Queen of Cocaine

Griselda  Blanco - The Godmother

Many years ago I watched a documentary called " Cocaine Cowboys " on channel 4. It was amazing. I suggest you watch it on utube. It was about the drug cartels in Miami during the 80s.I watched in disbelief as they interviewed the detectives and gang members from that time.I had seen the film Scarface many times and although its a great film I considered it mainly Hollywood fiction mixed with some reality.How wrong was I. This documentary told the real story of Miami in the 80s and it was a lot more violent than Scarface.It was mainly the Colombian drug cartels fighting for control of Miami. You see, Miami was the first stop in America from Colombia and the gangs would fly in there planes loaded with cocaine then distribute the coke around America.This was going on in late 70s and early 80s without any problems.In fact by the time the Americans and Ronald Regan realised there was a problem, they reckon hundreds of millions dollars of cocaine was being shipped in every month.Miami was awash with money, new building were being built with the money and car show rooms were running out of Porches and Ferrari's.It was only when the Colombians began to fight with the other gangs that the true scale of the problem became apparent.There were shootouts with machine guns almost every week on the streets.It was a bloodbath.It was so bad that Ronald Regan had to send in the army to gain control of the streets.Maybe the most surprising thing about this documentary was the revelation that the head of the Colombian cartel was a woman !! " The Queen of cocaine " or the Godmother as she was named.They interviewed one of her hitmen who was in jail for life for the murder of 200 people.He described her as the most ruthless person in the underworld.Many people know of Pablo Escobar as the main man but the people in this documentary all said that she was the top dog.It was her that started Escobar.It was the Godmother that everyone had to go through if they wanted something done.It all ended in death for a lot of these people, but she survived and she was jailed for twenty years aged 46.She served her time in American jails and was released around 6 years ago.When I watched that programme never in a million years would I have thought our paths may cross some day.There I was walking home a few streets from my apartment when I see a crowd had gathered outside a shop, there was a lot of police. I managed to find out someone had been shot and saw the body being put into the ambulance. It was only the next day I was shown the newspaper and it was her.The Queen of cocaine had been shot leaving the butchers and died on the way to the hospital.A man walked up to her and shot her.He then jumped on the back of a motorbike and sped off.People said it was ironic because she was the first to introduce the motorbike hitmen in the 70s.She was 69 years old when she was killed but someone had a score to settle no matter how old she was.They reckon she was responsible for over 300 killings.She named her youngest son Michael Corleone after the film The Godfather, so she enjoyed her reputation.People ask me how safe is this city and I say its fairly safe but if there are any problems they are usually sorted out with a gun.Any bad debts usually end up with a bullet in someones head.Only 3 months ago my friends friend was shot in his car by 4 men on motorcycles. Him and his brother were killed in a hail of bullets.It didn't even make front page of the paper.I asked her if the police had caught anyone.She laughed and said the family of the man killed don't want the police to investigate as it would cause problems for them.They say Hollywood are working on a film of her life now and a movie should be out in the next few years.Jennifer Lopez is tipped to play her.There wont be any need to hype up the violence in this one.
In the words of Shakespere   " revenge should have no bounds "