Netflix's Griselda is a fictional television series about Griselda Blanco's drug empire in Miami during the 1970s and 1980s, directed by Sofía Vergara Vergara, who plays the transformational protagonist. The new series isn't the first to dramatize Blanco's criminal behavior - the 2018 film Cocaine Godmother was the Lifetime movie Cocaine Godmother - but Griselda spans six episodes, Giving Blanco and her cohorts more room.
One of them was Jorge Ayala, also known as Rivi, who was Blanco's killer and confessed to three murders in 1993.
Ayala's crime
As viewers saw in "Griselda," Ayala and Blanco began working together as the titular drug lord established a foothold in Miami's cocaine trade. Although Ayala was convicted of three murders, including the intended victim's 2-year-old son who was featured in the Netflix series, NBC Miami reports that he is "believed to be responsible for approximately three dozen murders."
A bizarre turn in the case
Griselda dramatizes the real-life phone sex scandal between Ayala and a secretary in the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office. As the Miami Herald reports , money, gifts and photos were also exchanged.
The Herald explained that Ayala was originally intended to be a witness against his former boss, but the scandal "weakened" his case. In 1998, Blanco finally reached a plea deal.
Ayala was interviewed in prison for the 2006 documentary "Cocaine Cowboys." Blanco was stabbed in prison on the same day he was released in 2004, "but he refused to reveal the identity of his attacker," the film said.
His 'last chance' for freedom
The latest developments in Ayala's case occurred in 2013, when he was 48 years old. Ayala wanted a chance to seek parole because he claimed prosecutors reached a "handshake deal" in 1993, the Miami Herald reported. His attorney, Jim Lewis, said this would be his "last chance or he will die in prison." According to CBS. The request was denied.
"Because he allegedly made some phone calls or had phone sex conversations with some state attorney's secretaries, and now all of a sudden they can say, 'Well, you messed up. You broke the deal,'" Lewis said at the time. "You know everyone needs to get over this. He put himself and his family at risk."
Since then, there has been no progress in Ayala's case. He remains in prison, according to the Florida Department of Corrections. The Herald reports that if Ayala is released, he will be deported to Colombia.
