Medellin: Griselda Blanco, a Colombian drug trafficker, was shot to death in Medellin by gunmen on motorcycle. She was 69.
Famous as the “queen of cocaine”, Blanco was among the trailblazers to smuggle cocaine to the US from Colombia in the 1970s and 80s.
She spent nearly 20 years in prison in the US for drug trafficking and three murders, including the 1982 slaying of a 2-year-old boy in Miami.
“It’s surprising to all of us that she had not been killed sooner because she made a lot of enemies,” former Miami homicide detective Nelson Andreu, who investigated her, said late Monday. “When you kill so many and hurt so many people like she did, it’s only a matter of time before they find you and try to even the score.”
Her family said that upon her return to Colombia, Blanco had abandoned the organised crime.
Blanco began her criminal career as a pickpocket and eventually led an empire that reportedly shipped 3,400 pounds of cocaine a month, by air and sea routes, TheStar.com reported.
She was considered a Colombian pioneer in drug smuggling to the US, a precursor to the larger cartels that dominated in the 1980s.
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