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.

Michael Corleone was the apple of her eye. He was 11, 12 years old. She trusted me with the most important thing in her life. She allowed me to bring him to Oakland and hang out with me, I’d take him to the movies. Dixon and Ubert didn’t care too much for me. They didn’t wanna accept the fact that their mother was fucking a nigger. I didn’t give a fuck, I didn’t answer to them. I answered to Griselda.

A lot of Griselda’s organization had been with her since her early days in Queens, New York, in 1971 and 1972. They got wind of the fact that “this young slick black cat from the hood is sharing a bed with the Godmother.” They began talking a lot of bullshit behind our backs: “She’s not thinking straight. This young nigger is just playing her out of her money.” We made a conference call to New York, Colombia, everybody talking bullshit. She let the muthafuckas know, “This is my life to live it as I choose. Whoever I give my love to, that’s my muthafuckin’ business. Whoever don’t like it, y’all don’t gotta be around.” She was the person of last resort. She put them in check.

Lighter Colombians frown upon darker-skinned Colombians. Black Colombians are catching hell in 2008 from racism, the way it was in the American south in the 30s or 40s. Griselda told me that, universally, black people are looked down upon as second-class citizens, people who don’t know how to function, who need a hand-out to live, who don’t have a country. Russians, Italians, Mexicans, Dominicans, Brazilians, they have their own countries. If we can’t take care of ourselves, how can we take care of their business? These feelings were deep-rooted.

I made a good impression upon Griselda, but they didn’t want to open their minds and accept just anybody. Griselda’s sons did business with [DC kingpin] Rayful Edmond in Lewisburg, they were fuckin’ with Rick Ross in LA, laying 200-300 kilos at a time on him. Blacks could do business with money in hand, if they could afford it. But as far as fronting product or socializing with them? It never happened. A black man as Griselda’s lover and business parter? I was the only one.

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.

Griselda once said she was the baddest bitch to ever draw a breath, which is true—made a billion a year, committed 250 murders [according to] DEA intelligence—but at the end of the day, she’s just a woman. She wanted to be loved, kiss on the mouth and told how special she is. She hadn’t been with a man in six or seven years [until] this young, suave black nigga swept her off her muthafuckin’ feet. My thoughts in the back of my head was, “If I come at the bitch in a real way, maybe one day she’ll bless a nigga.” I ain’t come out like, “Well bitch, I want the hook-up, that’s all.” I finessed the bitch.

I recall there was times when Griselda was sad, being locked up, so I told her, “Times I’m not there with you, just know that we’re still connected. Look up at the moon where you are, and I’ll look up where I am. That moon connects us to one another.” Little shit like that really won the bitch over. It wasn’t, “I wanna see what a black dick feels like” or myself, “I wanna know do Latin bitches fuck better?” We established a friendship that blossomed into love.

We were having sex at the prison. The visiting hall is a recreation room, at the very back is a stage, and if you pull the curtains open, there’s a locked door. I would drop $1500 on the guards, we’d sit at the very back, and then slip onto the dark stage and handle our business. It wasn’t that difficult. All pussy gonna make a nigga nut, I don’t care if it’s a 50 year old or 21 year old. She may have been a little on the plump side, but she was beautiful man, I don’t regret it.

On the very first visit, we were talking in the recreation room. She had mentioned on the phone some months earlier, “I’mma put you in,” or open up the Colombian pipeline to me. She said her money was my money. Of course, I had to contain my excitement; I told her, “I appreciate that, but I want to make my own money.” She asked me, “How much product would it take to make you and your family more comfortable?” I told her 50 kilograms. The following Saturday, there was a knock at the door and a Colombian chick had two boxes. There was 25 kilos in each box. I scooped up the boxes, the bitch kept her promise.

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.

My friend Banana got me into the game in 1983. I watched him from the sidelines, saw what he was able to do selling crack, so I stepped to him like “I wanna be down.” Banana said crack was gonna be the new heroin; we were gonna make as much money as Felix Mitchell did. Brookfield Village, you’re talking about 5,000 homes. That was big enough to feed everybody. The people we were selling to, we grew up knowing them, knowing their kids. We were young, doing what we thought was correct. We didn’t know it was wrong, selling crack to our friend’s mothers.

At the beginning was friendly competition, we was knew to this crack shit, just chasing money. We went from riding Mongoose bikes and skateboards to making $5000-$7000 a week, buying cars and fuckin’ bitches. We was learning as we went along. We didn’t have nobody to teach us the ropes. There wasn’t no blueprint to execute. Niggas 18, 19 years old making $100,000 a day selling crack? Felix Mitchell’s biggest day was $25,000.

When cats realized how much money could be made, people’s attitudes changed. “If I take this nigga’s block, I can double my money.” After Banana was killed, I realized how serious the game was, that taught me to stay in the shadows. Violence and drug dealing go hand in hand, that’s just a fact. Fortunately, I was respected to where I didn’t have to get at anybody on that level. The bully like the nigga Suge Knight got bullets with their name on ‘em. Ain’t no place in society for a bully, no place at all.

I wasn’t like them other guys, ordering shootings and firebombings every other day. That shit was limited in how I did my business. Who am I to take somebody’s child from them? But then and now, I had niggas around me that would do anything for me, period.

I surrounded myself with the group of guys I grew up with. The trust factor was there. We had our infrastructure within Brookfield. We were together but our money interests was separate, there was no collective money pot of profits. As long as we remained in Brookfield, everything was kosher. As guys began to venture out to 69th Ave, 73rd Ave, 85th Ave, they were meeting unfortunate circumstances—shot, stabbed, robbed, killed, being in and out of jail. I learned from their mistakes. If somebody fumbled the ball, I knew not to go down that path.

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.

via Panache Report

Former Cocaine godmother Griselda Blanco was not only responsible for hundreds of murders in Miami and trafficking over 300 tons of cocaine but she was also plotting to kidnap the late John F. Kennedy, Jr., during her reign of terror.

Rewind: Griselda Blanco was responsible for creating the drug pipeline in Miami and she netted $8 million dollars per month in drug proceeds. She was also a female serial killer who only used female mules. She also enjoyed bi-sexual orgies.

It took authorities 16 years to find witnesses willing to testify against her because she was so feared.

Blanco became the most powerful female trafficker in history and was often referred to as the “Female Scarface.”

To read more of her story, click here: Female Scarface

CharlesCosby.com has passed 3,000,000 hits (yes, 3 million) and we are just getting started. The Official Charles Cosby site was launched only a couple months ago and the pace of people visiting the site is picking up speed daily.

We will be upgrading the site and releasing a new design. The new design will be available within the next 2 weeks. During the process, we don’t expect any downtime on the site.

If you have any suggestions of what you would like to see on the new site send an email over to ideas@charlescosby.com

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.”

This week CharlesCosby.com will be giving away a signed movie poster to one of it’s visitors.

The movie poster is approximately 3 feet tall and is mounted on a board backing (it does not roll up). It is the same poster as seem in this picture.

This poster will be the ONLY one available signed by Charles Cosby.

To be entered in the contest, send an email to contact@charlescosby.com explaining why you should be the one to win the poster.

The contest ends on August 22,2008.

Good luck!

Background: The author of this post is battling Mutiple Sclerosis and is also a fan of the movie Cocaine Cowboys 2. He has a blog that is updated almost every day.

Title: shut up, seriously?

This is my life, I just tell it like it is…..

This morning I woke up at 7:00 and was at the Y working out by 7:55, I went home as usual and was just getting ready to get in the shower when I got a phone call. It was another RESTRICTED phone call, but I picked it up anyways. As soon as I did, I was blown away. I recognized the voice right away, and when he told me who he was for himself, when I actually heard the audio play into my ears, I actually had the breath taken out of me.Now you might be thinking, well all this is a bit much Mikey, but I kid you not. Charles called me up and we spoke for a good 34 minutes and 26 seconds this morning about subjects ranging from his past life, to positively affecting the youth of today. What a crazy experience, just 2 days ago I was watching a movie about this guy, talking with my friends about how it would be crazy to be able to meet him. And then I get to talk with him on the phone. Not only that, but Charles & his wife said that they admired the things I have done… WHAT?!?!? It is so interesting to me, to see how everything unfolded. Right from the get go, when we (my friends and I) were in Blockbuster, it was strange. Josh(friend) wanted to watch Harold and Kumar 2 Escape from Guantanamo Bay…but I thought that looked stupid and mindless so I was very defiant as soon as the suggestion was made. We kept looking and Josh kept trying to talk me into Harold & Kumar. Well, we look and look and look and finally get down to the last wall of movies. Tony who was quiet the whole time says, “hey, look it’s Cocaine Cowboys 2.” We all agreed & the rest is history. All the little things really do make a difference.

By Tom Landy

In the early 1980s, Charles Cosby made a living selling crack on the streets of Oakland, California and quickly found himself nestled at the top of the food chain. Fate would have him write a letter to Griselda Blanco, the notorious cocaine “Godmother” serving twenty years hard time for the illegal trafficking of narcotics. In a whirlwind six months, Cosby was a multi-millionaire, Blanco’s lover, and acting head of her billion-dollar cocaine smuggling empire.

Cosby’s story is told in the documentary “Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin’ with the Godmother” released by Magnolia Home Entertainment on home video this past July 29. DVDTOWN’s own Tom Landy had a chance to check in with Charles Cosby, the legendary “Mayor of Brookfield Village” and chat a bit about his story:

Landy: Hey Charles. Thanks for taking the time to do this interview for DVDTOWN. How’s life been treating you lately?

Cosby: Thanks for taking the time. Life is good. I have no complaints.

Landy: How’s your family doing?

Cosby: My family is doing quite well. My younger children are in school, and the older ones are in the workforce.

Landy: For some of our readers who might not have seen “Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin’ with the Godmother,” would you mind briefly telling us what your story is all about?

Cosby: “Cocaine Cowboys 2″ is a story about my friendship, and eventual business and sexual relationship with Griselda Blanco, a former Colombian drug trafficker known the world over as “La Madrina” or “The Godmother.”

Landy: Recently I sat down and watched “Cocaine Cowboys 2″ which I thoroughly enjoyed. I thought it was very intense for a documentary (but in a good way). Have you seen the finished product yourself, and what did you think of it?

Cosby: I´m glad you enjoyed “Cocaine Cowboys 2,” it´s a helluva story in which I spelled out the zeros. The first time I viewed “Cocaine Cowboys 2″ was June 20th in Las Vegas at the 10th annual Cinevegas Film Festival. The film is definitely one for the ages. There was not one boring scene, if I must say so myself.

Landy: It certainly was captivating all the way through from beginning to end. Billy Corben seemed pretty energized about the project and from listening to the audio commentary I could tell that he put a lot of heart into the production. Did you get a similar feeling, and were you happy with him in the director’s chair?

Cosby: Billy Corben and Rakontur Films gave “Cocaine Cowboys 2″ life. No other director or film company could´ve done a more superb job. Billy Corben, Alfred Spellman, David Cypkin and Evan Rosenfeld ate, slept, and breathed “Cocaine Cowboys 2″ during fifteen grueling months of editing.

Landy: Wow, I didn’t realize it took that long, but it definitely shows that a lot of time and effort went into the production. If you could hop into a DeLorean and travel back in time to the early ´80s, is there anything in your life that you would do differently?

Cosby: Yes! I would get an education, become a successful lawyer and contribute to society rather than helping to tear society down!

Landy: Did you ever sample any of the narcotics that you were supplying, or were you strictly just a dealer?

Cosby: I have never indulged in illegal drug use, albeit alcohol, tobacco or cocaine.

Landy: Have you ever thought of writing a book about your experiences?

Cosby: I´ve written my memoirs with investigative journalist, Mark Ebner. We are pushing for an early ´09 release.

Landy: That’s great. I’ll have to make a note to keep an eye out for it. Do you have a story that didn’t make it into “Cocaine Cowboys 2″ that you’d like to share with us?

Cosby: The guys from Rakontur and I were filming in Brookfield Village, the place where I grew up, and while we were on the street a friend who I hadn´t seen in many years happened to be driving by in a van. He stopped and looked directly into the camera and said, “Charles Cosby is a legend. He is the Mayor of Brookfield Village.” That was a beautiful thing.

Landy: Mayor . . . I like that. Griselda Blanco was deported back to Colombia after being released from prison in 2004. Do you believe she is still involved with drug trafficking?

Cosby: Griselda Blanco hasn´t been involved in drug trafficking for a number of years. Believe it or not she happens to be a born-again Christian. Talk about a transformation. I wish Griselda Blanco well.

Landy: Do you still find yourself sleeping with one eye open, or do you think Blanco has moved on?

Cosby: When we filmed “Cocaine Cowboys 2″ I made mention that there was a $1 Million contract on my life, but that was sixteen months ago. Time is the greatest healer of wounds. In fact, at the premiere of “Cocaine Cowboys 2″ in Miami July 23rd my special guest was none other than Michael Corleone, Griselda Blanco´s youngest child. When I introduced Michael to the 400-plus moviegoers they gave him a thundering ovation. Although Michael Corleone cannot legally endorse “Cocaine Cowboys 2,” he endorses Charles Cosby–the man whom he looks up to as a father figure. Michael Corleone owns a very successful record company, Xtorxion Records in Miami.

Landy: If you had a chance to see Blanco today, would you say anything to her, and what would it be?

Cosby: I would tell Griselda I love her, and thank her for all that she did for me and my family.

Landy: If a feature film were to be scripted based on your life story, which actor would you like to see cast as you and which actress would make the best Griselda Blanco?

Cosby: In the very near future you will see my story in theaters. I’d want to see Don Cheadle and Salma Hayek play myself and Griselda Blanco.

Landy: I could easily picture them in those roles. Well, thanks again for setting aside some time to answer our questions. Is there anything else you’d like to add before we go?

Cosby: Yes, I have one final thought: Linking up with Griselda ‘The Godmother’ Blanco was the crowning moment of my criminal career–a high of highs. The unlimited supply of cocaine readily at Blanco’s disposal was the mother of all connections. There are only a few documented criminals who’ve surpassed the billion-dollar mark in illegal earnings. She was the first drug trafficker to do so. Each of those dollars has been allegedly stained by blood. You can’t have drugs without violence whether on Blanco’s level or those misguided young men who spend their days hustling on inner city street corners as I once did. In hindsight, if I was presented the opportunity of establishing a link to Griselda Blanco today, gain her trust as I did seventeen years ago, and become a multi-millionaire, I’d run in the opposite direction. An association with Blanco was indeed an occupational hazard. Though I enjoyed a level of wealth that would make most A-list celebrities green with envy, traveled the world, owned European automobiles and bedded beautiful women–as many as three in a single conquest–I was unhappy. In spite of all that I’d acquired, I realized I had nothing. The streets were a DAMN LIE!

For more information about Charles Cosby and “Cocaine Cowboys 2: Hustlin’ with the Godmother,” check out CharlesCosby.com