Warning: This post contains spoilers for “Griselda.”
The new Netflix miniseries “Griselda” is a “fictionalized dramatization” of Colombian drug trafficker Griselda Blanco, per the streamer’s press notes.
Griselda Blanco’s four sons — Dixon, Uber, and Osvaldo Trujillo-Blanco, and the youngest, Michael Corleone Blanco — also figure prominently into the series, especially the ending.
While in prison serving a combined sentence for second-degree murder and conspiracy to import and distribute cocaine into the United States, Griselda (in the show) learns that her three older sons were killed in three different coordinated hits. Griselda Blanco herself was executed in 2012 after being deported to Colombia.
“Dixon was shot while he was walking to his car. Ozzy was in a crowded nightclub,” June Hawkins, a real-life intelligence analyst played by Juliana Aidén Martinez, tells Griselda, played by Sofía Vergara. “Uber was shot in Colombia was he was making a drug deal.”
How accurate is this ending? Though the series is inspired by true events, the storyline of “Griselda” and each of the characters underwent dramatization. When it comes to her sons, real life is merging with fiction.
Here’s what to know.
What happened to Griselda’s older sons?
The South Florida Sun Sentinel published an exposé on Blanco in 1989, saying she “welcomed her three oldest sons into the cocaine trade” and their opulent lifestyles.
The article characterized Osvaldo Trujullo-Blanco, her third sons', way of life. “He lived in a splendid house in Beverly Hills at a rental of $16,000 a month,” the article reads. “Every morning a florist would come to spread a blanket of fresh flowers on his pool. In the driveway were a Rolls-Royce, two Aston Martins and a Porsche.”
As of 2008, though, not 20 years later, it's likely at least two of her three oldest sons had all been killed. The Miami News Times wrote that year, “Blanco’s three other sons were all murdered, purportedly in retribution for carnage she herself caused.” CBS News, in a 2012 article featuring a former Miami police chief and a documentarian that worked with Blanco directly, reported that two of her sons had been killed.
One was certainly Osvaldo Trujillo-Blanco, whose death outside a Colombia nightclub in 1992 was reported by the U.S. Department of Justice Office of the Inspector General.
Is Griselda Blanco’s youngest son still alive?
Michael Corleone Blanco, Griselda Blanco’s fourth and youngest child, is still alive. He calls himself, per the website of his lifestyle brand, the “proud son of Griselda Blanco.”
Michael Corleone Blanco starred in the VH1 reality series “Cartel Crew,” which followed family members of notorious cartel members in Miami.
According to the series, Michael Corleone Blanco spent decades in crime before changing his ways.
Marie Ramirez De Arellano’s Instagram shows that she and Michael Corleone Blanco married in 2021 and have a daughter named Faith. He has also thanked De Arellano for caring for his sons.
He is the founder of Pure Blanco, which the website describes as “a billionaire cartel lifestyle brand” that focuses on fashion, movies, music, cannabis and the licensing of the Pure Blanco Brand.
His Instagram page is rife with homages to his mother. “My mother once told me don’t ever forget where u came from. I came from GRISELDA,” he said. He also wrote a book about her called "My Mother, The Godmother."
What has he said about ‘Griselda’ the series?
Michael Corleone Blanco and his wife, Marie Ramirez De Arellano, filed a lawsuit against Vergara, Netflix and others involved in the limited series on Jan. 17 in Florida’s Miami-Dade County. The lawsuit was obtained by NBC News. In it, they seeking damages “in excess of $50,000,” arguing that the series and its promotional materials use the unauthorized “image, likeness and/or identity” of family members.
The pair also allege in their complaint that the series relied on recorded conversations the show’s producers had with Michael Corleone Blanco, who was not compensated for their use.
Benjamin Mordes, an attorney representing Michael Corleone Blanco, spoke to NBC News about the lawsuit.
“Netflix, as we’ve alleged, is using these ideas that were part of interviews that were memorialized, and writings and notes. Nobody else could have those ideas and nobody else could have those stories,” he said.
In a statement posted to his and his wife’s Instagram pages Sept. 12, the Blanco family denounced the series and said that he, “nor any other member of the Blanco family have been consulted or have taken any part in the 'Griselda' project,” contradicting the complaint.
While talking with TODAY.com, “Griselda” and “Narcos” creator and executive producer Eric Newman says a lawsuit from the subject’s estate “comes with the territory.”
“I dealt with similar suits from Pablo Escobar, his family, during the making of ‘Narcos,’” Newman says. “I tend not to think much about them. It just feels a little bit unsurprising and kind of comes with the territory.”
TODAY.com has reached out to Netflix for comment and has not heard back at the time of publication.
