THE COMPELLING NETFLIX limited series Griselda fictionalizes the reign of “Godmother of Cocaine” Griselda Blanco over the Miami cocaine trade in the ’70s and ’80s, and the shocking true events that led to her downfall. The series comes from the creative team behind Netflix’s previous huge hit cartel drama Narcos and its Mexico-based spinoff, and while Griselda tells a self-contained story focusing on the exploits of Sofia Vergara’s titular queenpin (and the police’s efforts to bring her down), the two shows share obvious DNA—and there is even some overlap in a small handful of the real-life criminals depicted.
If you’re watching Griselda having already binged Narcos, then one surname in particular may have struck you as familiar: Ochoa. Jorge Ochoa, Juan David Ochoa Vásquez, and Fabio Ochoa Vásquez played a major role in the formation of the Medellin cartel in Colombia alongside Pablo Escobar—events explored in Narcos—and were heavily involved in drug trafficking into the United States.
When we are first introduced to the Ochoa brothers in Griselda, they are rival drug lords who decide to team up with Blanco and combine their operations. However, their new, already-delicate working relationship soon goes horribly awry. Blanco is shown doing drugs with her new business partners’ cousin, Marta, who overdoses and dies. Blanco tries to hide the body, but the Ochoas eventually discover it.
In real life, Marta was actually the sister of the Ochoa brothers, acting as a liaison between Blanco and the Medellin cartel, and her death was not an accident. Rather, Blanco is believed to have murdered Marta to avoid paying her debts. The subsequent killings of Blanco’s oldest three sons were said to have been in retaliation to Marta’s death.
What really happened to the Ochoa brothers?
Jorge, Juan and Fabio all turned themselves into the authorities in 1996, when Colombian president César Gaviria Trujillo introduced a more lenient prison sentence for drug traffickers who were willing to cooperate with the police. They each served five and a half years. After their release, youngest brother Fabio was arrested for trafficking again, and received a 30-year sentence which he is still serving at the age of 66.
Jorge is now 73 and reportedly still lives in Colombia. Juan died of a heart attack in 2013 at the age of 67.
Philip Ellis
Philip Ellis is News Editor at Men’s Health, covering fitness, pop culture, sex and relationships, and LGBTQ+ issues. His work has appeared in GQ, Teen Vogue, Man Repeller and MTV, and he is the author of Love & Other Scams.
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