( CNN ) -- An elderly woman who was known as Colombia 's `` Queen of Cocaine '' was gunned down in the northwestern city of Medellin , police said Tuesday . Griselda Blanco , 69 , was killed by two bullets at close range -- a violent end not unlike the ones that authorities say she ordered during her prime in the 1970s and 1980s . Witnesses heard the roar of a motorcycle and two gunshots Monday afternoon , Medellin police spokesman Diego Chavarria said . By the time authorities arrived at the scene in Belen , a residential neighborhood in Medellin , they found Blanco lying on the ground in a pool of blood . Blanco , also known as `` the godmother '' and `` mafia 's mother , '' gained notoriety in the 1970s and '80s when , authorities say , she was responsible for shipping multi-ton shipments of cocaine from Colombia to Miami . She was also the mastermind , investigators say , of countless murders . She was also linked to drug lord Pablo Escobar . Previously on CNN.com : Alleged leader of Colombia 's Rastrojos drug gang arrested . In 1975 , Blanco was charged in Miami with conspiring to manufacture , smuggle and distribute cocaine in the United States . For the next decade , she lived in Colombia , using false names and documents to hide from authorities . The Drug Enforcement Administration arrested Blanco in Irvine , California , in 1985 . She was convicted and sentenced to six years in prison . But prosecutors were not done with her . Blanco was charged in 1994 with ordering three murders in the Miami area . The killings -- including that of 3-year-old Johnny Castro , who was shot while riding in a car with his targeted father -- happened in 1982 . Talking about her case at the time she was charged , Al Singleton , a sergeant with the Metro Dade Police Department , said police believed Blanco was responsible for dozens of murders in the Miami area . `` If she was not one of the most prolific traffickers in the Miami area , she clearly was one of the most violent . We 've got her , conservatively , estimating her to be involved in at least 40 homicides between Miami , Queens and Broward County , '' he said at the time . After serving her sentence , Blanco was deported to her native Colombia in 2004 , where she apparently lived a quiet life . Local media reported that she was gunned down as she was leaving a butcher shop with a pregnant daughter-in-law , who was not injured . According to a report by CNN affiliate Caracol TV , Blanco was the mother of four children . One of them is still serving a sentence for drug trafficking in the United States , and two were murdered . The fourth lives in Colombia . Colombia peace talks set for October .
Carolina González was a high - profile trafficker in Colombia and the United States . She was released from a Colombian prison in 2008 . She is believed to have been living a quiet life in Colombia . She was gunned down Monday .