Part 3 of 5. Check back Monday for the continuation of the 5 part exclusive series.

via King-Mag.com

Charles Cosby Enters the Top of the Food Chain

Three weeks after I met Griselda, I took my first flight to New York, to meet this black dude in Harlem and broker a two million dollar deal. It was a guy who’s currently a criminal celebrity but I ain’t gonna put his name out there. Griselda had a system in place—LA, Miami, Charlotte, Milwaukee, Seattle, Houston, dozens of cities over a five year span. There was no schedule. My phone rang and someone would tell me, “So and so needs you to meet with this guy.” 95% of the time, I didn’t even take any luggage. I just left with what I was wearing.

All I had to do was take a flight, shake a hand, make a phone call and make a million dollars. The drugs were delivered, money was shuttled to me, I in turn shuttled it to another location. At no point was I transporting drugs; I’ve never been arrested for drugs. You would find money and guns in my house, but not drugs. If that ain’t the top of the food chain, I don’t know what is.

Griselda had four sons: Dixon, or “El Negro”, Ubert, Osvaldo (who was my guy), and Michael Corleone, the youngest son. I met Osvaldo when he got out of Lewisburg [Federal Prison]. He had established a rapport with some of the black guys, and he immediately took a liking to me. Even before I met Griselda [in person], we’d go down to LA, he’d spend money on me, we’d shop. He was a cool dude. When he was killed, it was like I lost my brother.

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Part 2 of 5. Check back tomorrow for more.

via KING-Mag.com

Charles Cosby Meets Griselda Blanco

I was watching the news in February 1985, and Griselda Blanco’s arrest was an endless fuckin’ loop. I was fascinated—she was a billionaire moving 2,000 kilograms of coke a month. It blew me away. I never knew of a drug dealer, much less a woman, who could make those amounts of money.

Years later, I was in Los Angeles at my relative Kevin’s house, and I met this Panamanian chick, Manuela. We got to talking about coke and shit, and she wove some fascinating stories about Griselda, the bitch I admired. Throughout my life, I’ve always been an opportunist, and what better opportunity than to fuck with Griselda Blanco? Niggas could call it groupie or whatever, no muthafucka in his right mind is gonna wanna pass up that chance.

I asked Manuela if she could cut me in. She let Griselda know, “This young man admires you, he just wants to reach out and say hello.” Our first conversation was July 4th. She [called and] said, “This is Griselda Blanco. I’m pleased to make your acquaintance. Why have you decided to reach out to me?” I said, “I just wanna rub elbows with a legend. If you’re accepting new friendship, please allow me the honor.” We developed a bond from that very first phone call. Griselda was like John Gotti, receiving mail from all over the world. I was the only person she ever wrote back.

Niggas from the Bay Area, they the best pimps in the United States, hands down. It’s like they was gifted with the game. My greatest mentor was my older brother, Poppa Mack, that was my life teacher. He was a pimp many years ago. He taught me, “Never trust a bitch. A hoe is gonna be a hoe.” The things I learned from watching my brother translated in later years in fucking with Griselda—how to talk to women, how to massage their egos whether it was bullshit or not.

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via KING-Mag.com

In this five-part KING-Mag.com exclusive, former drug kingpin and Cocaine Cowboys II star Charles Cosby details his rise and fall in snow business.

Charles Cosby’s Origins

Brookfield Village in the early 40s was acres of orange trees. When World War II kicked off, Southern blacks migrated to the Bay Area. They were the war workers, making munitions. Single family homes replaced the orange groves. My mom, Irma Jean Garcia, came to Cali from Texas in 1953. My mother’s father was from Mexico, and her mom was Cherokee Indian. My father happened to be in the Navy and he had some off-time in Fresno. That’s how him and my mom met. My parents moved to Brookfield in 1968 from Fresno, California.

Felix was the top dog during his tenure. Didn’t nothing move in Oakland without his approval—he was the drug dealer’s drug dealer, the first one on the west coast to have a Rolls Royce. When he was removed from the equation in 1983 on tax evasion, a new game was ushered in…crack.

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Charles Cosby and Griselda Blanco grace the pages of the French magazine New Look with a spread titled Scarface Etait Une Femme. Click the cover image above to take a look at the pdf version.

Charles Cosby in the newest KING Magazine. Issue hits stands Sept 15,2008.

“Cult-favorite drug documentary Cocaine Cowboys II examines how nickel-and-dime dope dealer Charles Cosby advanced to snow-business heavyweight. In this first-person account, Cosby describes his courtship of a killer coke queen.”

By Martin A. Berrios

Ever think what it would be like growing up in a family engrossed in crime? You might be able to get a small glimpse into the life when you watch a mafia movie or read up on the come up on the most well known mobsters. Well if you ever wanted the real deal then Michael Corleone Blanco is your guy. The son of Griselda Blanco of Cocaine Cowboys 2 fame, he would be literally born into the street life as he was named after the after the fictional character Michael Corleone played by Al Pacino in the movie trilogy The Godfather. Gangster right?

Now almost thirty years later, Michael finally speaks on growing up in the household with “The Godmother” at the helm. In his first interview ever, Michael sheds light on his notorious mother, his precarious childhood, and life beyond the Blanco name.

AllHipHop.com: You’re the son of Griselda Blanco. How was she as a mother?

Michael Corleone Blanco: As far as my mother goes, I’d like to compare my upbringing as far as a family upbringing, you know how the Italians have The Sopranos and it’s a family being a family, that’s how it was growing up in the Blanco household. You would catch my mother with her maids making dinner you know? Besides everything that was obvious to a child’s eye, it was having family order. Just like a regular family’s chain of command, my mother has always been the head of the household. My mother always took care of the boys and from there me and my brothers were the head honchos of the family and we told everyone else what it was. It was a good upbringing. Christmas came around and I got my first Porsche at six years old.

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July 31, 2008 - E.G Radio’s Lynx and Ras chop it up with Charles and learn all about what it was like dealing with this the worlds most notorious female drug dealer often referred to as the female Scarface. Learn about how Cocaine Cowboys II came about, what Charles and Griselda are up to now, why millions in the game meant nothing to Charles’ happiness, and much more. Go cop that DVD “Cocaine Cowboys 2″ now!

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Total Time: 30 minutes 15 seconds

-= The Official Charles Cosby Site =-
Buy Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin With The Godmother Now!

Every so often a criminal persona will have a street reputation so grand; it will become permanently fixated into popular culture. From Al Capone and his cigar, the Son of Sam’s grim mystique all the way up to John Gotti’s Teflon disposure. In 2006 a new outlaw would be etched in our hearts via the cult classic documentary Cocaine Cowboys.

The film chronicled the insane drug trafficking flowing throughout Miami in the 1970’s and 1980’s. At the center of all the money, murder, and kidnapping was Griselda Blanco. Also known as “The Godmother”, Blanco was a pioneer in the cocaine trade due to her amassed fortune and ruthless ambition to stay at top.

While Cocaine Cowboys detailed her rise to infamy, her entire story was not told. Now with the recent release of the much awaited sequel Cocaine Cowboys 2, her story continues in California. Albeit being incarcerated, Blanco still ran a multi million dollar drug operation behind bars with the assistance of Charles Cosby. A dealer himself, Cosby would link with Griselda and make street history. In an exclusive, AllHipHop.com speaks to The Godmother’s multi million dollar man.

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via Complex Magazine

While in her late 40s, Colombian cocaine queen Griselda Blanco liked to tell her friends, “I’m the baddest bitch to ever take a breath of life.” If you need proof, watch Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin’ With The Godmother, a spin-off of the 2006 documentary that drops today. While the original examined Miami drug trafficking in the late ’70s and early ’80s, the sequel focuses in on the post-Miami operation of Blanco (aka The Godmother), detailing how she fell in love with Oakland man Charles Cosby and recruited him to run her national cocaine distribution network while behind bars in the early ’90s.

Told primarily through interviews with Cosby, along with archival footage and animated reenactments, CC2 is easily as riveting as the original. But while the first documentary offered broad social commentary about the effects of drug money on Miami, the sequel is much more of a focused character study about how these strange bedfellows developed a symbiotic relationship. If that doesn’t make you want to watch…did we mention that there’s a segment where they give instructions on how to cook crack? Either way, there’s something for the whole family. Watch the trailer here or learn how to win a copy of the DVD below.

To win a copy of the Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin’ With The Godmother, answer the following three questions correctly:

1. Griselda Blanco is originally from Medellín, Columbia. What other infamous drug trafficker called this city home?

2. Cocaine Cowboys 2 takes place primarily in Oakland, CA. Name three rappers from Oakland who have gone platinum.

3. Griselda Blanco named her son Michael Corleone, after Al Pacino’s character in The Godfather. In the first movie, what island does Michael flee to after killing the men who shot his father?

Email your responses to contest@complex.com. If you’re one of the first two people to answer correctly, we will send you a copy of Cocaine Cowboys 2