Catherine Zeta-Jones, nominated for a Golden Globe for her turn as the ruthless wife of a
drug lord in 2000’s Traffic, has landed an even juicier role in the true story crime biopic The
Godmother. In a new film directed by Norwegian helmer Eva Sørhaug (90 Minutes, Cold Lunch)
Zeta-Jones will play real life kingpin Griselda Blanco, the first and only woman to rise to the
higher echelons of Colombia’s Medellin drug cartel.
Blanco was a fearsome figure at the center of the Miami drug wars of the 1970s and ’80s
depicted in the 2006 Magnolia Pictures-released documentary Cocaine Cowboys. Her reign
of terror, in which she’s suspected to have ordered hundreds of assassinations to stay in
money and power, was so vicious and violent that it earned her the nicknames La Madrina,
Black Widow, and the Cocaine Godmother.
Blanco was also one of the biggest success stories of her generation in the drug game. Born
in Cartagena, Colombia, she rose from her roots as a teenage runaway and prostitute and
emigrated to New York where she started a cocaine business with her husband. Indicted on
federal charges, she fled back to Colombia but resurfaced in Miami. There she established a
distribution network connecting New York, Miami, LA, and Colombia that made her a multi-millionaire
by her forties. After a 1985 arrest the mother of four served 18 years in prison before being released
in 2004. She was deported back to Colombia, where she was killed in a motorcycle drive-by
assassination in 2012.
Source: Deadline
drug lord in 2000’s Traffic, has landed an even juicier role in the true story crime biopic The
Godmother. In a new film directed by Norwegian helmer Eva Sørhaug (90 Minutes, Cold Lunch)
Zeta-Jones will play real life kingpin Griselda Blanco, the first and only woman to rise to the
higher echelons of Colombia’s Medellin drug cartel.
Blanco was a fearsome figure at the center of the Miami drug wars of the 1970s and ’80s
depicted in the 2006 Magnolia Pictures-released documentary Cocaine Cowboys. Her reign
of terror, in which she’s suspected to have ordered hundreds of assassinations to stay in
money and power, was so vicious and violent that it earned her the nicknames La Madrina,
Black Widow, and the Cocaine Godmother.
Blanco was also one of the biggest success stories of her generation in the drug game. Born
in Cartagena, Colombia, she rose from her roots as a teenage runaway and prostitute and
emigrated to New York where she started a cocaine business with her husband. Indicted on
federal charges, she fled back to Colombia but resurfaced in Miami. There she established a
distribution network connecting New York, Miami, LA, and Colombia that made her a multi-millionaire
by her forties. After a 1985 arrest the mother of four served 18 years in prison before being released
in 2004. She was deported back to Colombia, where she was killed in a motorcycle drive-by
assassination in 2012.
Source: Deadline