Cocaine Godmother

Griselda grows up in poverty in Colombia and is forced into childhood prostitution. She commits her first murder as a survival act. This brutal start foreshadows the violence that will accompany her rise.

She emigrates to the United States with her first husband and their three young sons, seeking a new life. She begins earning money by creating fake passports for cocaine smugglers, then moves into smuggling herself when she realizes using women as mules reduces risk. Her cunning helps her build an underground network.

Fed up with an abusive marriage, she leaves her husband and travels with her children. In the United States, she meets Carolina, an American woman, with whom she begins a complicated romance. This relationship will influence her personal life for years.

Griselda remarries a man named Alberto Bravo, but she keeps Carolina as a companion. She continues to navigate the drug world while maintaining two parallel romantic ties. The arrangement underscores her unorthodox approach to both business and love.

After settling in Miami, Griselda's drug empire grows rapidly. She innovates logistics, pushing into new methods and expanding her gang's reach. The Miami drug trade begins to feel the weight of her influence.

Griselda does business with Pablo Escobar back in Colombia and becomes the queen of the cocaine trade. Her organization inspires fear as violence and corruption spread through the city. The once-poor girl seizes control of a multinational criminal network.

The stress of running the operation takes its toll on her family; her three oldest sons become dangerous gangsters. Her marriage collapses as trust erodes and constant danger looms. Carolina dies of a drug overdose, a brutal blow to the already strained household.

Her fourth son Michael, fathered by Darío Sepúlveda, is kidnapped and held for weeks before he is returned home. The incident showcases how high the price is for the family and the business. The trauma accelerates Griselda's reliance on cocaine and paranoia.

Griselda develops an addiction to smoking cocaine, which makes her increasingly irrational and unreliable. The addiction compounds the fear and volatility surrounding her operation. Her grip on power begins to weaken as personal demons escalate.

The DEA has watched her operation for years and she moves to Los Angeles to lie low. Law enforcement closes in on her network, and she is eventually found. She is arrested along with her three sons while Michael is sent to live with a relative in Miami.

Griselda serves limited jail time thanks to the loyalty she commands among her minions. Her influence keeps the operation's skeleton intact and she negotiates favorable terms. The arrest marks a dramatic fall from her peak power.

After serving time, Griselda is deported back to Colombia. She endures a lonely existence as two of her sons are killed by assailants and the remaining son commits suicide rather than be killed. Her empire has fallen, and she loses the family she built.

Griselda dies an old woman when an assassin on a motorcycle shoots her on the street. The narrator concludes that she is now free. The story closes on a paradoxical note of liberation after a life spent in crime.