Nicki Minaj once rapped: Drug Lord Griselda, I used to move weight thru Delta. She’s referring to today’s subject, la Madrina, the drug lord of the Colombian Medellín Cartel, Griselda Blanco Restrepo, the Black Widow. Born in 1943 in Cartegena, on the north coast of Columbia, she became the so-called "Queenpin," and adopted all the macho tropes of the gangster. We argue she wasn't the biggest gangster at the head of her cartel, but one of the smallest gangsters in a whole world of cartels that have worked to bring the fruits of South America’s land into the United States market, at the cost of millions of human lives.

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SOURCES:

José Guarnizo Álvarez, “Colombia’s ‘Cocaine Queen’ Living in Obscurity When She Was Shot Dead,” EL PAÍS English, September 13, 2012, sec. International, https://english.elpais.com/elpais/2012/09/13/inenglish/1347536945_696771.html

Episode 2: Berner Interviews Michael Corleone Blanco (Full Episode), 2019, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eODEHYQhKO0

Billy Corben, “Griselda Blanco: Hasta Nunca y Gracias Por La Coca,” Vice, May 9, 2012, https://www.vice.com/es/article/3b5jz8/griselda-blanco-so-long-and-thanks-for-all-the-cocaine

James Kelly, “South Florida: Trouble in Paradise,” Time, November 23, 1981, https://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,922693,00.html

Justin Vallejo, “Wild Real Life Story behind ‘Cocaine Godmother’ Portrayed by Sofia Vergara,” The Independent, April 5, 2022, sec. News, https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/griselda-blanco-sofia-vergara-netflix-b2051670.html.

Our intro music is Arpeggia Colorix by Yann Terrien, downloaded from WFMU's Free Music Archive and distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License. Our outro music is by DJ Michaeloswell Graphicsdesigner.