Sofia Vergara signs on to star as notorious cocaine cartel queen Griselda Blanco in new Netflix series
- The six-part series, Griselda, chronicles the life of Blanco as she became the top Colombian drug lady of the Medellín Cartel
- Griselda came to prominence in the 1980s when the cocaine import and export business was booming in New York, Miami and Southern California
- Blanco, who was more commonly known as La Madrina or the Black Widow, earned her nickname for her gruesome approach to business
- She was credited with inventing drive-by motorcycle killings, and, at one point, was reportedly responsible for up to 200 murders while in power
Sofia Vergara is set to star as Griselda Blanco, the notorious cocaine cartel queen, in a new limited series from Netflix.
The six-part series, Griselda, chronicles the life of Blanco as she became the top Colombian drug lady of the Medellín Cartel who came to prominence in the 1980s when the cocaine import and export business was booming in New York, Miami and Southern California.
Blanco, who was more commonly known as La Madrina or the Black Widow, earned her nickname for her gruesome approach to business and being responsible for hundreds of murders across a decades-long career as a mob boss.
Boss lady: Sofia Vergara is set to star as Griselda Blanco, the notorious cocaine cartel queen, in a new limited series from Netflix; seen in August
'Griselda Blanco was a larger-than-life character whose ruthless but ingenious tactics allowed her to rule a billion dollar empire years before many of the most notorious male kingpins we know so much about,' Vergara told Deadline.
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'We are thrilled to have found the perfect partners in Eric, Andrés and Netflix to help us bring this story of her life to the screen.'
Vergara will also serve as executive producer of the project with Luis Balaguer for Latin World Entertainment
Griselda was credited with inventing drive-by motorcycle killings, and, at one point, was reportedly responsible for up to 200 murders while in power.
Yikes: The six-part series, Griselda, chronicles the life of Blanco as she became the top Colombian drug lady of the Medellín Cartel who came to prominence in the 1980s when the cocaine import and export business was booming in New York, Miami and Southern California
Tough: She was credited with inventing drive-by motorcycle killings, and, at one point, was reportedly responsible for up to 200 murders while in power
Born in Colombia in 1943, Griselda swiftly became a ruthless criminal who committed her first murder when she was only 11, and her victim was 10.
Marrying multiple times, Griselda had four children, the youngest of whom she named after another notable movie gangster, Michael Corleone Blanco.
Griselda went to jail in the 80s for three murders, two of which were of drug dealers and one was of a two-year-old boy.
History: Marrying multiple times, Griselda had four children, the youngest of whom she named after another notable movie gangster, Michael Corleone Blanco
In 2004, La Madrina was set loose and deported to Colombia, and in 2012, a motorcyclist shot her dead outside a Medellin butcher shop when she was 69-years-old, per the Miami Herald.
It's not the first time Blanco's seen the bright lights of Hollywood though, as part of her story was told in the 2006 documentary Cocaine Cowboys.
Nearly a decade later, Catherine Zeta-Jones took on the role for her Lifetime biopic, Cocaine Godmother.
Jennifer Lopez is also working on The Godmother for STXFilms, with Reed Morano sitting in the director's chair.
'I've been forever fascinated by the story of Griselda Blanco and jumped at the chance to play her on screen. She is all things we look for in storytelling and dynamic characters — notorious, ambitious, conniving, chilling,' Lopez said in a statement to THR last year.
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