Sofia Vergara stars in Netflix’s Griselda as Griselda Blanco, a kingpin who earned the nickname the “Cocaine Godmother” during her reign in the 70s and 80s. The series portrays Blanco’s rise to power in Miami’s criminal underworld, while also struggling to protect herself and her family from her various powerful enemies.
Blanco was extremely powerful thanks to the massive wealth she acquired over the years. In 2012, it was reported that Blanco amassed a cool $2 billion while she was working as a kingpin. It was estimated that her business brought 1.5 tons of cocaine to the U.S. every month. She was killed in 2012, though her killers were never identified.
Her story is told in Griselda, which is from the same folks who brought us Narcos. Here is the official synopsis:
La Jefa is coming. Sofia Vergara transforms in this series, inspired by Griselda Blanco, a woman who rose from obscurity to become ‘the Godmother’ of the underworld. Witness her lethal blend of charm and ruthlessness in this captivating series.
Blanco’s family does not approve of the Netflix series, but Vergara explains that she tried to show that Griseldea was a “complex” person beyond her drug lord tendencies. “I really wanted to explore that from the point of view of, you know, of her being one of the only women in history to have gone as far as she did,” she explained.
Griselda is now streaming on Netflix.