Disclaimer: This article contains mentions of murder. Reader discretion is advised.
Netflix’s latest take on Griselda Blanco, a notorious Colombian drug lord who was called Cocaine Godmother, primarily focuses on her third husband, Dario Sepulveda. Blanco had three husbands, all of whom died tragic deaths. Speculations suggest that Blanco was involved in each of their deaths, earning herself the Black Widow moniker.
According to Business Insider, Blanco and Sepulveda married in 1978 and eventually had a son, Michael Corleone Blanco. Following this, they moved to Miami. Michael is the only surviving son of the drug boss. Her one-time associate, Max Mermelstein, told the Sun Sentinel that the couple’s relationship faced complications following Sepulveda’s infidelity.
The outlet reported that the latter took their son Michael after Blanco and Sepulveda’s breakup and moved back to Colombia. But in 1983, men dressed as police officers gunned down Sepulveda in Medellín in front of the five-year-old boy.
Griselda, starring Sofía Vergara, is now streaming on Netflix. Another documentary about Griselda Blanco is Queen of Cocaine, now available on Tubi. In addition to that, the Cocaine Cowboys documentary film and the Cocaine Godmother crime drama have also chronicled the drug lord‘s life.
Was Griselda Blanco behind Dario Sepulveda’s tragic death?
The Miami New Times reported that Griselda Blanco’s third husband, Dario Sepulveda, had moved to Colombia with their son, Michael Corleone Blanco. The move came following the couple’s breakup. There, in 1983, assassins dressed as police officers fatally shot Sepulveda in Medellín in front of his son.
As per Business Insider, the men dressed as police officers “asked Dario to get out of the car,” Blanco’s former associate Max Mermelstein told the Sun Sentinel. Mermelstein said, “He [Dario Sepulveda] got out and they handcuffed him, but he started to run. The cops opened fire and shot Dario right in front of the kid.”
Mermelstein further said, “Little Michael was screaming and ran over to embrace his father, but by the time he got there, Dario was dead. The execution was done on the orders of Michael’s mother.” The Mirror mentioned that Dario Sepulveda died in young Michael’s arms.
Mermelstein and Blanco’s former hit man Jorge “Rivi” Ayala would later tell law enforcement officials that Griselda Blanco had ordered the hit on her third husband because he left for Colombia with Michael and another woman, reported Miami New Times. However, Michael’s business manager and friend, Cristian Rios, has denied the allegations about Blanco’s involvement in Sepulveda’s murder.
A year after Dario Sepulveda’s murder, Michael reunited with Blanco and continued living with his mother until her 1985 arrest in Irvine, California. She served several years in prison on charges including drug trafficking and second-degree murder. Blanco was assassinated in 2012, per The Mirror.
Who were Griselda Blanco’s previous husbands & what happened to them?
Reportedly, besides being known as the Cocaine Godmother, Griselda Blanco was also dubbed the Black Widow. She earned the moniker because of the tragic deaths of her husbands. Even before Dario Sepulveda’s assassination, she was accused of murdering her two previous husbands—Carlos Trujillo and Alberto Bravo.
According to Business Insider, Carlos Trujillo, a foreign document forger and pimp, was Blanco’s first husband, whom she married as a teenager. The outlet stated that, as per Vice reports, Blanco met Trujillo at the age of 13 in Medellín, Colombia. The couple had three sons and got divorced by the late 1960s. Blanco allegedly had Trujillo killed over a “business dispute” in the 70s. She never faced charges in connection with his death.
Griselda Blanco and her second husband, Alberto Bravo, met shortly after Trujillo’s death and built their drug empire together in New York. Business Insider reported that according to the New York Times, the cartel’s name was Alberto Bravo organization at the time. Sometime after 1975, while fleeing federal drug conspiracy charges in New York, Blanco and Bravo had a confrontation in a nightclub parking lot in Bogotá when she killed him.
Business Insider stated that Blanco allegedly killed Bravo over a disagreement related to business. She allegedly suspected that he was “responsible for stealing millions that were missing in drug profits.”
Max Mermelstein told the South Florida Sun Sentinel in 1989 that Blanco told him that she had “personally killed” Bravo. Mermelstein said, “She [Blanco] told me that she was standing at the open window of Bravo’s parked car and he said something that made her mad. So she reached over, stuck the muzzle of her gun in his mouth, and pulled the trigger. Just like that. And I believe her.”
Following Bravo’s death came the tragic assassination of Dario Sepulveda in 1983.
