In the mid-1970s, Blanco and her second husband Alberto Bravo illegally immigrated to the US with fake passports, settling in Queens, New York. They established a sizable cocaine business there, and in April 1975, Blanco was indicted on federal drug conspiracy charges along with 30 of her subordinates. She fled to Colombia before she could be arrested, but returned to the United States, settling in Miami in the late 1970s.

Her second husband was Alberto Bravo. In 1975, Blanco confronted Bravo, who was also her business partner, in a Bogotá nightclub parking lot about millions of dollars missing from the profits of the cartel they had built together. The Guardian reports: “Blanco, then 32, pulled out a pistol, Bravo responded by producing an Uzi submachine gun and after a blazing gun battle he and six bodyguards lay dead. Blanco, who suffered only a minor gunshot wound to the stomach, recovered and soon afterwards moved to Miami, where her body count – and reputation for ruthlessness – continued to climb.”

Blanco had her youngest son, Michael Corleone Blanco, with her third husband, Darío Sepúlveda. Sepúlveda left her in 1983, returned to Colombia, and kidnapped Michael when he and Blanco disagreed over who would take custody. Blanco paid to have Sepúlveda assassinated in Colombia, and her son returned to her in Miami.

In 1984, Blanco’s willingness to use violence against her Miami competitors or anyone else who displeased her, led her rivals to make repeated attempts to assassinate her. In an attempt to escape the hits that were called on her, she fled to California.

On February 18, 1985, she was arrested by DEA agents in her home and held without bail. After her trial, Blanco was sentenced to more than a decade in jail. While in prison, she continued to effectively run her cocaine business with the help of her son Michael Blanco.

By pressuring one of Blanco’s lieutenants, the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office obtained sufficient evidence to indict Blanco for three murders. However, the case collapsed due to technicalities relating to a telephone-sex scandal between the star witness and female secretaries in the District attorney’s office. In 2002, Blanco suffered a heart attack while imprisoned.

In 2004, Blanco was released from prison and deported to Medellín, Colombia. Before her death in 2012, the last sighting of Blanco was in May 2007 at the Bogotá Airport.

According to the Miami New Times, “Michael’s father and older siblings were all killed before he reached adulthood. His mom was in prison for most of his childhood and teenage years, and he was raised by his maternal grandmother and legal guardians.” In 2012, Michael was put under house arrest after a May arrest on two felony counts of cocaine trafficking and conspiracy to traffic in cocaine. He appeared on a 2018 episode of the Investigation Discovery documentary series, Evil Lives Here, to recount his lonely childhood. In 2019, he was featured in the VH1 docuseries Cartel Crew, which follows the descendants of drug lords. He also runs a clothing brand, “Puro Blanco,” that refers to his infamous mother.

Rapper Lil Kim created alter ego “Kimmy Blanco” as tribute to Blanco; Kim debuted this persona in her 2013 single of the same name.

Rapper Rick Ross referenced Blanco on the 2013 Meek Mill song “Believe It”, rapping “I’m screaming RIP, Griselda Blanco”.

Rapper Soolking released in July 2017 a song intitled “blanco griselda”.

Toronto Eastside rap duo Pengz and Two Two released the single “Griselda Blanco” in August 2017.

Catherine Zeta-Jones portrayed Blanco in Cocaine Godmother, a television biopic, which premiered in 2018 on Lifetime.