What Really Happened To Griselda Blanco's Sons?
This article contains spoilers for the Netflix show "Griselda."
The story of Griselda Blanco has been the stuff of legend among true crime fans for decades. Known as the "Cocaine Godmother," Blanco was a major drug trafficker in Columbia, New York, and Miami, who amassed an estimated fortune of $1.5 billion and left a trail of dead enemies in her wake. Famously, the notorious druglord Pablo Escobar once claimed: "The only man I was ever afraid of was a woman named Griselda Blanco."
This chilling quote opens episode one of Netflix's hit 2024 limited series "Griselda," a stylized retelling of her wild and unbelievable story, the YouTube trailer of which describes Blanco as a "Queenpin. Innovator. Mother. Killer." Indeed, though Blanco's criminal enterprise takes center stage in "Griselda," the show also goes out of its way to explore the effect that her crimes have on her children.
Blanco had four sons: three with her first husband, a pimp and forger named Carlos Trujillo, and a fourth with her third husband, hitman Dario Sepúlveda. Sadly, Blanco's youngest son, Michael, confirmed in an interview with The Mirror in 2020 that all three of his older brothers had been killed. Here's what we know.
Dixon Trujillo-Blanco
Griselda Blanco's oldest son was Dixon Trujillo-Blanco. Though the exact details of his biography are hazy, several outlets claim that Dixon worked for his mother in San Francisco, where he contributed to the running of her drug trafficking organization. A 1989 report on the Blanco crime family published in the South Florida Sun-Sentinel noted that Dixon was 27 at the time and that he was believed to be behind the trafficking of 660 pounds of cocaine a month in California. Corroborating the story that Griselda trained her own children to be deadly criminals, the paper notes that Dixon was also suspected of having committed hit-and-run assassinations by motorcycle — a form of execution that his mother is notoriously credited with pioneering.
Dixon was arrested in 1985 and sentenced to 10 years in federal prison, though a Washington Post feature from 1996 suggests that he returned to the cocaine trade immediately following his release. "Griselda" claims that Dixon was assassinated while getting into his car, though journalists have not verified this detail.
Uber Esnyder Trujillo-Blanco
Griselda Blanco's second son, Uber Trujillo-Blanco, also followed in his mother's footsteps and entered the drug trade. Uber was two years younger than Dixon, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel, and like his older brother was stationed in the United States to oversee the operation of her drug trafficking network. Uber's territory was in Miami, where his mother had spent many years building her empire.
The same article quotes a DEA agent familiar with the Blanco cartel, who claimed that once, when Uber was dating a girl in Miami, word got back to Griselda that the girl's father disapproved of the relationship, and had uttered a racial slur about the Blancos. She promptly sent one of her hitmen to kill him.
Uber was also arrested in the mid-1980s and sentenced to 10 years in prison, having been found guilty of trafficking in the region of 440 pounds of cocaine through Miami a month. The exact details of when and where he died are unclear, though "Griselda" suggests he died in a drug deal gone wrong.
Ozvaldo Trujillo-Blanco
More detail exists concerning the life and death of Ozvaldo Trujillo-Blanco, Griselda Blanco's third and final son with her first husband, Carlos Trujillo. Ozvaldo, who was four years younger than Uber and just 21 when he was arrested, worked for his mother in Los Angeles, and trafficked an enormous 1,100 pounds of cocaine a month through the city, according to the South Florida Sun-Sentinel. Osvaldo's prodigious talent for the drug trade allowed him to live a life of luxury with a home in Beverly Hills, at which he stored a fleet of sports cars reportedly paid for with cash.
Like his brothers, he was sentenced to 10 years in federal prison. Like them, he returned to a life of crime upon his release, and was back on the street in 1992, according to a case study published by the Department of Justice, which claims that he was assassinated in October of that year after returning to Colombia. Several online sources suggest that this happened at a nightclub, a detail that is also mentioned in "Griselda."
Michael Corleone Blanco
Michael Corleone Blanco (pictured) — who is named after the protagonist in "The Godfather" — is Griselda Blanco's fourth and only surviving son. According to an interview he gave to The Daily Mail, Michael joined the business at the age of 9, and it seems he was expected to follow his older brothers into a life of crime. However, as portrayed in "Griselda," Michael fled with his father, Dario Sepúlveda, back to Colombia to escape the escalating violence that came the characterize his mother's drug trafficking empire, but the violence followed them there. Michael was reportedly present when his father was shot dead by assassins believed to have been sent by Griselda. He claims to have survived seven assassination attempts over the years, but after the death of his mother, he decided to end the cycle of violence that had wiped out most of his family, though he faced federal charges relating to drugs in 2012.
However, Michael has stepped away from the world of organized crime. Today, he operates a fashion business, Pure Blanco, and has appeared on the VH1 reality TV show "Cartel Crew," which broadcast footage of his wedding.
Michael has challenged Netflix's Griselda
Michael Corleone Blanco has remained a regular figure in the media in the years since his mother's death, with his lurid tales of her crimes and the tragedy of his peripatetic upbringing making good tabloid fodder. In 2024 around the release of Netflix's "Griselda," Michael was in the news again, only this time he wasn't exactly seeking the limelight.
As NBC Miami reports, Michael has attempted to sue the makers of the show for a sum in excess of $50,000 for their unauthorized use of his family's story. In 2020 he told The Mirror: "My mother was no saint ... She had to survive to do her thing. But at the end of the day, she was my mother. I will forever honor and respect her. I love her." The suit also claims that Michael met with producers to discuss being a paid consultant on the show, but that while no agreement was made, details he had given them were incorporated into "Griselda" with no remuneration. Michael has written a memoir, "My Mother, The Godmother," which he says is based on "more than 15 years researching, writing, and reconstructing each of the stories of my life, my family, and my mother, Griselda Blanco."