Cocaine hidden in lingerie and dog crates. 1500 kilogram shipments.
Medellín drug lord Griselda Blanco managed to conceal both drugs and cash from authorities,
but you’ll be shocked to know how much she really accumulated during her lifetime.
Before she was gunned down in a public hit in her hometown on September 3, 2012, Griselda
Blanco was profiting from the booming cocaine trade that permeated the 1970s and 1980s.
After setting up a network that moved massive amounts of the stimulant across the sea from
Colombia and through a vast United States distribution chain, she began to see the fruits
of her labors.
Blanco kept her money-making enterprise moving largely due to her ruthless hits on enemies.
According to Britannica, it was Blanco's ruthlessness that paved the way for the Cocaine Cowboy
Wars, a violent era that began in the late-1970s.
She had no qualms ordering hits in public areas during the day, including a local mall.
When her foes began to order hits on her, she moved to the United States.
But her reign of terror soon came to an end when she was arrested in 1985 and sentenced
to 20 years in prison.
While she managed to secure an early release, she was ultimately deported to Colombia, where
she was later killed.
Blanco is believed to be behind up to 200 murders, and she took her savagely earned
blood money and funneled it into real estate.
So just how did Griselda Blanco earn so much money, and what was she worth at the peak
of her operation?
The answer might surprise you.
"She basically invented bringing cocaine from south America and into the United States."
The drug operation that Blanco used to accumulate her vast wealth was clearly both wide-reaching
and profitable.
Blanco operated her cocaine smuggling operation out of New York City.
In one particular example of her cunning, Blanco would apparently have her lingerie
fitted with secret compartments that were used to conceal drugs.
Speaking to the "Real Narcos" podcast, historian Elaine Carey went into more detail about the
revolutionary smuggling methods that drove Blanco's massive empire, saying,
"They were the right people at the right time with the right product.
[...] It wasn't just coming in on people's bodies.
It was also coming in false bags, suitcases, and dog crates."
But according to Carey, it was customized lingerie that was particularly important for
the operation, as she explained,
"They were also creating garments that would facilitate this, such as specialized brassieres
and girdles and things like that [...] where they could actually enhance the female figure.
[...] These garments would allow for the drugs to be more smoothed around the body and it
would just look like a woman's natural figure."
According to Noiser, Blanco's smugglers could easily board flights with their drugs hiding
in plain sight.
The outlet claims that each specially fitted bra could hold 1 kilogram of cocaine, which
at the time amounted to approximately $10,000 dollars in profit.
Before her death, Celebrity Net Worth estimated that Griselda Blanco owned approximately $500
million worth of property.
In the wake of her death, Colombian federal law enforcement seized four properties that
amounted to around $118.7 million.
Though her wealth appeared to have declined in her later years, signs of her life of luxury
still followed her after her death.
Notably, her casket bears golden Arabesque designs, echoing the billions of dollars that
she built throughout her life.
Per The Guardian, Blanco was reportedly raking in tens of millions of dollars monthly from
her enterprise, which was known to make drug shipments that exceeded 1,500 kilograms.
At her peak, Celebrity Net Worth valued her at an astounding $2 billion and claimed that
she made up to $80 million per month through her business.
As is expected from a former cartel drug lord, Blanco was believed to have held vastly more
properties than were on the books, hundreds of which are rumored to never have been discovered
by law enforcement.
Speaking to El Pais, a Colombian police officer addressed Blanco's post-prison wealth amid
rumors that she was struggling financially, saying,
"Poor?
Listen to this: you and I are poor.
She went around driving her mazdita and collecting the money from the leases on the properties
she still owned.
She was also selling a building for 1.5 million pesos."
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