JFK, Jr. and The End of Griselda and Charles' Romance

After the confrontation, I stepped my game up. I'm doing my own thing on the side in the Bay Area, we reachin' from LA to Seattle. She's laying dope on me as fast as I can sell it. Time progresses. Griselda had a hitman named Rivi, one of the most feared assassins ever to step foot in Miami. Anytime Griselda had a problem, she'd get Rivi on the phone. He was doing life in prison already for a numer of murders. [The State of Florida] came at Rivi with some open homicides: "Either you keep your mouth shut and go to Death Row; or tell us about Griselda Blanco and we'll cut some of your time off.”

Rivi decided to become a State's Witness against Griselda. He gave [Miami] Homicide a detailed list of everybody she killed or put contracts on. She was scheduled to get out of jail in two or three years, then Rivi decided to flip. Griselda was a psychological wreck: "They're not gonna let me out of prison.” I told her, "we can spend $30 million on the defense, get the best lawyers in the world to represent you. Rivi's a convicted murderer, no jury will believe him. You'll get acquitted.”

Griselda's very stubborn, she doesn't know what ‘no' means. She had this idea of kidnapping John F. Kennedy, Jr. in Manhattan and holding him for ransom until she was safe in Colombia. I said, "Griselda, I sell drugs. I'm not trying to kidnap him or nobody else.” What she was trying to do? That's life in jail, period. I got kids I was trying to raise. If I get arrested selling drugs, that's what I chose to do, but for a bitch to twist my arm—"Nigga, you gon' be a part of this.”—that's when I began to back up from Griselda. This is 1996, 1997. I was tired. I had millions of dollars but I had lost a lot of time with my kids. I was unhappy. I just wanted to be normal, put that bullshit behind me and reclaim some semblance of my life. The life of a dope dealer is usually three to five years long and I had shattered that two times over.

Florida subpoenaed me but I didn't give them any relevant information. I didn't need or want to sink Griselda's already-distressed ship. I just wanted peace in my life. During the deposition, the lead prosecutor's secretary, Sherri Rossbeck slipped me her phone number. We engaged in a sexual encounter. On the eve of Griselda's trial in Florida, Rivi started having phone sex with Sherri. I wasn't a bit surprised—I knew what I had done to the bitch in my hotel room. But the prosecution was handcuffed, it fucked their case up, so Griselda walked away after seven years in 2004.

I remained under the radar by design. The thing is, the more power you have, the more you have to control it. It's not healthy for a dealer to flaunt their wealth. Ask any nigga in the federal penitentiary for drug crimes, "What would you do different?” The very first thing would be, "Cut back on excesses.” Stop allowing yourselves to fall victim to peer pressure. If a bitch don't wanna fuck with you cause you don't drive a Benz, fuck that bitch. I know it's tough but you gotta make wise decisions, cause your decisions affect not only you but your family.

To the young guys who wanna be the next Nino Brown or Tony Montana, the streets are a lie, man. The streets don't offer second chances. The police can make a thousand mistakes, a nigga on the block make one mistake and he gone for life. Don't use Charles Cosby as an example. Even I can't do that again. I was very smart, maybe smarter than most, but a lot of the shit was still luck. We gotta impart to these youngsters that they gotta change their lives. We losin' too many of ‘em.

Griselda is very much aware of my role in Cocaine Cowboys I and II. In fact, we were supposed to meet in Panama in January 2008, but security concerns make it difficult for her to travel outside of Colombia. There's so many death warrants out on her. But hopefully, we'll be able to meet no later than September of this year, sit down and talk like adults. From my understanding, there's no hard feelings at all. The only thing she was upset about was being portrayed as a lesbian.

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