Despite efforts by the family of the late Colombian drug lord to stop Netflix from airing it, Sofía Vergara’s new series Griselda has hit the streaming platform. The show follows the life of Griselda Blanco, the “Cocaine Godmother” who had an enormous and irreversible impact on the cocaine trade in the United States and served time for both her involvement in the drug business and three counts of second-degree murder.
Warning: Spoilers ahead.
Upsetting Details Unfortunately True
In addition to following Blanco, Griselda showed bits of the stories of the men she relied on to run her business – men like Jorge “Rivi” Ayala. Several scenes involving Ayala and the others are upsetting at best and violent and gruesome at worst, and somewhere in the middle lands a scene showing Ayala having phone sex with an assistant to the attorney who’s building a case against Blanco. While some of the scenes were exaggerated for the good of the dramatic series, the phone sex scene, unfortunately and mind-bogglingly, was not.
The timeline of the real events is muddled a bit in Griselda, but in 1985, Blanco was arrested by the DEA. As shown in the series, while she was serving time, other members of law enforcement built a case against Blanco to get her for the murders she committed in addition to the drug charges. A major part of the murder case hinged on using Ayala as a witness. Then, in 1998, three assistants at the Miami-Dade state attorney’s office were fired for having phone sex with Ayala. As mentioned on the show, this scandal threatened the case against Blanco.
Despite the absurd scandal, Blanco did plead guilty to murder and spent more time in prison than is shown in the series. Ayala had also pled guilty to murder in 1993, and he was sentenced to life in prison with the possibility of parole after 25 years. As of this writing, Ayala is still in prison, and reports say he would return to Colombia if released.
Sofía Vergara in ‘Griselda’ / Netflix
Parts of Griselda Blanco’s Life Omitted From the Series
While Griselda did cover a lot of ground in just under six hours, not every part of Blanco’s life was shown. The series began when Blanco and her three oldest boys were fleeing Colombia and Blanco’s husband. While the show makes it seem like Blanco had never been to the States, she had. Before setting up camp in Miami, Blanco had lived and run a drug business in New York. The drug lord was indicted on federal drug charges, so she went back to Colombia so she wouldn’t be found guilty.
The series also ended before Blanco’s death. The Godmother was eventually released from prison and moved back to Colombia. In 2012, Blanco was shot dead on the streets of Medellín. Rather than show her ultimate fate, Griselda stops after Blanco, while still in prison, learns of the deaths of her three oldest sons, Uber, Dixon, and Ozzy Blanco.
Griselda is streaming now on Netflix.