By Elena Nicolaou and Joyann Jeffrey —
Today
What was the real Griselda Blanco like?
Nelson Andreu, former West Miami Police Chief who spent a decade trying to convict the Colombian drug trafficker portrayed in the new Netflix series of murder, said she was a “ruthless” person.
“I hope that (the Griselda
series
) does not portray me as someone who sympathized with her.
Because I didn’t do it,” Andreu told TODAY.com.
Andreu is not a character in the Netflix series, but other real law enforcement members he worked with are, such as homicide detectives June Hawkins (played by Juliana Aiden) and Alan Singleton (played by Carter MacIntyre).
Although Andreu appeared in the documentary
Cocaine Cowboys
about Blanco, he said that
Netflix did not contact him
for the series Griselda.
“They are not going to portray her as she really was.
They never do it in the movies.
They will do what they think they will sell and what people will like.
Something very close to the truth, but not the truth,” she asserted.
The drug trafficker Griselda Blanco and the actress Sofía Vergara in her role in 'Griselda', the new Netflix series.Alamy Stock Photo / Netflix
Andreu and Singleton worked on the case for 10 years.
"Not everyday.
But whenever we had an opportunity or a clue, we returned to Griselda,” she recounted.
Blanco was one of the first to engage in large-scale cocaine smuggling in the United States and the only woman in her group.
An “unscrupulous” woman
“I had to be the way I was because I was the only woman in a men's business,” Andreu mentioned.
“At that time
there was no other with such capacity to traffic cocaine.”
What Andreu remembers about the real Blanco was her cruelty, especially in the homicides she committed.
The drug trafficker pleaded guilty and was convicted of three second-degree murders, but she is believed to be connected to many more.
“I had no scruples.
He would kill you if he owed you money and didn't want to pay you.
And if you owed her and couldn't pay the debt, she also eliminated you.
It was a win-win for her and a lose-lose for everyone else,” he summarized.
Andreu recounted an incident described in the series Griselda.
One of Blanco's four children needed shelter and went to the house of Jesús
Chucho
Castro, one of the woman's former henchmen.
“Castro said: 'No, I'm out of the drug business.
I do not want to know anything about you.
Go back to your mother, find somewhere else to go.
“I’m not going to help you.”
Griselda felt so offended because Castro did not help her son that she shot him,” Andreu recalled.
Castro hid.
When Blanco's hitmen, Miguelito Pérez and Jorge
Rivi
Ayala, caught up with him, the man was in the car with his 2-year-old son, Johnny Castro, who was murdered.
Andreu, who interviewed Ayala when the crime against Blanco, stated that his reaction to the news demonstrates his cruelty.
“They said, 'Listen, we've failed.
We gave it to the child instead of him.'
And she said: 'Well, better this way.
He suffers more with the death of her son.
So I'm glad they killed the two-year-old.'”
A scandal that clouded the case
Blanco was later charged in 1994 with first-degree murder for the death of Castro in 1982, and for the deaths of drug traffickers and couple Alfredo and Grizel Lorenzo, as reported at the time by the Tampa Bay Times.
Pérez was charged with first-degree murder for the child's death and sentenced in 1997 to life in prison.
At the time of his trial, Blanco was serving a 15-year sentence for conspiracy to manufacture, import into the United States, and distribute cocaine, handed down by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Andreu added that he felt “relief” when Blanco was finally charged with the three murders by the state of Florida.
“We were working on other cases and doing other things.
It was that little prick in the back of your neck where you're always wondering, 'what else can we do?'
What else could I have done?
I breathed a sigh of relief.”
Sofía Vergara as Griselda Blanco in her new series.Netflix
But the feeling did not last long.
“That relief turned to despair when we found out what had happened at the Prosecutor's Office,” she recalled.
Andreu referred to the scandal described in
Griselda
, when Ayala, Blanco's hitman and a key prosecution witness in the case against her, was caught having telephone sex with secretaries from the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office.
One of the three fired workers was cleared of charges, according to the Orlando Sentinel.
The death of Griselda Blanco
Ayala had pleaded guilty to three murders in 1993 and was serving a life sentence at the time of the scandal.
He was denied parole in 2012, according to the Miami Herald.
Ayala's loss of credibility marked a turning point in the case against Blanco, who reached a plea deal in 1998 after pleading guilty to three counts of second-degree murder.
She was sentenced to serve three concurrent 20-year sentences.
Blanco was deported to Colombia in 2004 and murdered in 2012. Colombian national police confirmed her death, NBC News reported at the time.
She was 69 years old.
Andreu worked in homicides for 21 years.
Blanco continues to be the “most brutal” and “responsible for the majority of homicides” caused by drug trafficking in her time.
“He didn't care at all,” she concluded.