Right, here’s what actually went down between Griselda Blanco and Pablo Escobar

If you’re even a few moments through Netflix new series Griselda, based on the real life of the cocaine “Godmother” Griselda Blanco, you’ll have questions about her relationship with notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar.

The series starts with a title card, which reads: “The only man I was ever afraid of was a woman named Griselda Blanco,” but the show offers little more explanation than this solo sentence about how Griselda and Pablo knew each other and why he feared her so much. So, here’s everything you need to know about how the Godmother and Godfather of running drugs got acquainted and what went down between them:

So, how did Griselda Blanco and Pablo Escobar know each other?

Credit: Netflix

Griselda Blanco was five years older than Pablo Escobar when they met in Miami in the late ’70s (around the time the show is set) he was just a car thief – not a drug lord – according to reports from Maxim.

Pablo was looking for a way in to the drug game and Griselda, who had been running since she was a teenager in Medellin, Colombia, had way more experience than him.

By the time Griselda moved to Miami, it’s likely they’d been running in the same circles for years. And, because she had more experience under her belt, Pablo respected her. Some reports suggest Griselda had been involved with Pablo’s Medellin cartel and, when she moved to Miami, she still had a business relationship with them.

“She [Griselda] is a true anomaly in that there has never been a woman who achieved that level of prominence in any drug cartel. Ever,” Griselda creator, Eric Newman, told Digital Spy. “And obviously, that immediately piqued our interest.”

It’s also been rumoured Griselda and Pablo were rivals and lovers, thanks to what she wrote in her diary about him. But this has never been proven. Interestingly, they are both buried in Monte Sacro Cemetery in Colombia.

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∙ Fake teeth, prosthetics and wigs: Inside Sofia Vergara’s transformation into Griselda Blanco

∙ The real Cocaine Godmother’s family are suing Sofia Vergara and Netflix over new show

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Featured image credit via Orange County Sheriff’s Department/Colombian National Police/ZUMA Wire/Shutterstock