‘European Griselda Blanco’ Captured in Medellin

Colombian police in Medellin have captured an elderly woman, dubbed the ‘European Griselda Blanco’, on drug trafficking charges. The woman, whose identity has not been revealed, lived discreetly in an apartment in Medellin and lived a life like any other woman her age. According to the news station Noticias Caracol, this was all despite having strong links to drug gangs in Serbia, having survived five assassination attempts and running a drug trafficking network.

Apparently, it was these assassination attempts in Europe by Serbian mafias that forced the woman, also known as ‘La Madrina’, to return to Colombia and settle in Medellin, where she lived a discreet and anonymous life. However, police sources have confirmed that the arrested woman, who has a criminal record of more than 20 years, was an intermediary between the European mafias and the paramilitary group of the Gulf Clan in drug trafficking matters.

More than 20 years of delinquency

‘La Madrina’ is said to have contacted the figure known as Otoniel, currently in custody but then the top leader of the Gulf Clan, to bring drugs from this illegal Colombian armed group to Europe, where Serbian gangs distributed them.

The police confirmed that this woman “had been bringing illicit money into Colombia, the product of drug trafficking, since the year 2000,” so the criminal record of ‘La Madrina’ and her relationship with Colombia has lasted for more than two decades.

“Drug traffickers sought her advice and permission to traffic cocaine to Europe from Colombia. She then formed a very large organization of more than 170 people,” a police investigator told Noticias Caracol.

According to the Colombian police, it was precisely her exposure to the Serbian mafias that led the woman to decide to settle in Colombia in 2020, fleeing the various attempts to end her life, all of them unsuccessful, that she had suffered on the old continent. Apparently, in the Balkan country, she was at war for the control of the illegal drug trafficking business with the figure known as Millan, who had tried to kill her on up to five occasions. Explosives were used in at least one of the failed attempts, but the criminal was unharmed in all of them.

Once in Colombia, “she began to establish her center of operations here. She coordinated her drug trafficking activities from Colombia through encrypted applications,” the investigator told the Colombian media outlet.

An anonymous life in Medellin

Once she arrived in Colombia, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, she settled anonymously in Medellin, where she lived the life of an apparently normal elderly woman, despite continuing her criminal activities.

“She led a daily life like any other woman. But from her apartment she managed to coordinate illicit activities with encrypted messaging applications. She had armored vehicles and an escort, as well as fraudulent permits,” the head of the investigation explained to Colombian television.

Her elderly appearance made it easier for her to go unnoticed by her neighbors, who were unaware that, beyond her appearance, the woman was the head of a dangerous international drug trafficking business.

In addition to an escort, the woman had several armored vans to provide her with the necessary security. Police coordination between Colombia and several European states facilitated discovery of her location in Medellin. After her capture, they found several of the codes she used to communicate with the Gulf Clan.

Captures in Europe

In parallel to the operation in Colombia, the Dutch police arrested six people, members of the clandestine organization, and seized 26 firearms, “among them 21 pistols, with their respective silencers, five rifles and an anti-tank rocket launcher,” said Colonel Ricardo Sanchez, head of Colombia’s anti-narcotics police, who coordinated the international operation with the Dutch police.

According to Colonel Sanchez, the woman known as the ‘European Griselda Blanco‘ had an Interpol red notice, while on the day of her capture, the codes with which she coordinated cocaine shipments to Europe (almost 100 tons per month) with the criminals of the Gulf Clan were found in her possession.

This illegal armed group is currently the organization that exports the most cocaine from Colombia.