2002 winner of the city of Barcelona Prize for Best Novel of the Year

GRISELDA BLANCO grows up in the suburbs of Medellin, surrendered in the prostitution which she was prey at the age of 12. At the age of 18, she met her first husband, Carlos Trujillo, who made her three children before throwing out her. She returned on the sidewalk before knowing the man who would change her life, Alberto Bravo. Together, they emigrate to New York. In the American metropolis, they dashed into the traffic of cocaine. Griselda and Alberto imported several kilos of white powder every week which they sold to a kingpin of mafia. John Gotti, the mafia Godfather, contacted Griselda so that supplies him the goods. The spouses Bravo organized the delivery of these goods based on their Medellin childhood friends. Their business became so important. But the demand kept growing. They had set up a high-tech industry to supply their customers. Other friends of Medellin came into play, including the notorious Pablo Escobar Gaviria, given the manufacturing and delivery to United States. The business worked perfectly until the day where the intervention of the DEA agents who failed to arrest Alberto, putting an end to the traffic of the Bravo couple. Griselda and Alberto had to leave the North American territory. She never forgave him this error. Because American authorities had been warned by the Colombian police which noticed the excessive lifestyle of Alberto Bravo and put him under surveillance. Annoyed by the excesses of her husband, who spent more time to sniff cocaine and romp in the bed with the mules which he used to spend drugs, she decided to kill him. Griselda Blanco became them the leader of a new network, settling in Miami to sell his white powder. It was the beginning of the time of Miami Vice. From this moment, the war between gangs for the sale of cocaine became the daily lives of the inhabitants of Miami. Until the day when Griselda Blanco escaped an arrest and a murder attempted. She took refuge at her mother's, Ana Lucia, in Los Angeles. She had quiet moments with her mother and her son, Michael Corleone. But Robert Palombo, a DEA agent, found her trail and arrested her in the bungalow where she lived. She was incarcerated in the prison for woman of San Francisco. Over there, she met a boy who had her great admiration, Charles Cosby. Became lovers, she made him her representative outside of the prison. But her right-hand man of Miami, Jorge Riverito Ayala, was arrested by the police. And to escape from the prison, he began to speak. The American authorities had their information. Griselda Blanco was extradited towards Florida, where she was judged for murder. But during the trial, Charles Cosby revealed to the judge having had sexual relations with a secretary of the Prosecutor. The judgment, which had to be a mere formality, turned in a fiasco. Therefore, the judge negotiated with lawyers of Griselda to put an end to this trial. Griselda Blanco was extradited to her country of origin, Colombia. Griselda settled down in Medellin in the chic area of El Poblado where she had bought a villa in a secure subdivision. She lived there for several years before being shot to death on September 3, 2012 by two men who put two bullets in the head. Griselda Blanco was almost 70 years old.

Thompson-Hairston paid a heavy price for her involvement in the drug game. Along with "New York Times"-bestselling author Ritz, she reveals in gripping detail her journey of redemption that readers won't soon forget.

This is the story of the most successful cocaine dealers in the world: Pablo Escobar Gaviria, Jorge Luis Ochoa Vasquez, Carlos Lehder Rivas and Jose Gonzalo Rodriguez Gacha. In the 1980s they controlled more than fifty percent of the cocaine flowing into the United States. The cocaine trade is capitalism on overdrive -- supply meeting demand on exponential levels. Here you'll find the story of how the modern cocaine business started and how it turned a rag tag group of hippies and sociopaths into regal kings as they stumbled from small-time suitcase smuggling to levels of unimaginable sophistication and daring. The $2 billion dollar system eventually became so complex that it required the manipulation of world leaders, corruption of revolutionary movements and the worst kind of violence to protect.

Snatched is the electric tale, by the New York Times bestselling author of Blow, Bruce Porter, that tells the true story of a woman caught between two worlds, with her life dangling in the balance. Raised an aristocrat in Colombia and educated in European schools, Pilar transfixes everyone with her charm and her guile. She also falls for dangerous men and finds herself drawn into the highest levels of the cocaine trade. After two failed marriages and a harrowing escape from the drug life, she settles down to a quiet existence in Florida with her children--until her second husband tries to cut short his prison term by giving her name over to members of a new task force being formed by the DEA. They induce Pilar, now a middle-aged woman, to infiltrate the Cali cartel as the head of a vast money laundering sting. Named "Operation Princess," the scheme leads to the seizure of tens of millions of dollars, along with some $500 million worth of cocaine and the exposure of hundreds of high-level traffickers, becoming one of the most daring and successful stings in DEA history. But Pilar plays her part too well. Her success as a money launderer gets her kidnapped and then ransomed by a band of guerrillas in South America--and the US government refuses to negotiate. It's left to her low-level handlers in the DEA to get her back, before it's too late and her kidnappers discover they have a federal agent in their clutches.

She was a loving mother.She was also a ruthless and treacherous drug lord who's suspected of murdering more than one husband.Who was she? Griselda Blanco, the Queen of Cocaine, aka The Godmother.From the streets of New York, to the ghettoes of Columbia, to the mansions of Miami, Cocaine Queen: The Reign of Griselda Blanco, is a based-on-actual-events story that takes you on a dangerous ride along the bloody rise to power of the most notorious female drug lord in history, as she kills anyone who gets in her way of complete dominance of the American cocaine market....

Cocoa La'Shey lived a life most girls on the south side of the Bronx only dreamed of. As an only child, Cocoa wanted for nothing - from the lavish mansion, endless bling, and money to blow that was afforded to her by the hustle of her father William La'Shey, the most notorious drug lord in the Bronx, Cocoa had it all. Not your average hood rich princess, Cocoa made it a personal priority to learn the business that constituted her family's wealth. When her daddy's empire finds itself on the brink of trouble following him being sent upstate on a long bid, Cocoa does the only thing she knows how to do-boss up and take the reins. Over time she takes her father's Cartel and turns it into a more profitable venture than even he was able to manage. Learning her own power and strength in the game, Cocoa decides it may be time to build an empire of her own. But, cutting her father out and double-crossing him could cost Cocoa her life and the respect of her family and friends. As the rising queen of the dope game, she has a decision to make-honor her hustle or honor her family?