Charles Cosby Net Worth

What Is Charles Cosby's Net Worth?

Charles Cosby is an American former cocaine dealer who has a net worth of $100 thousand. Charles Cosby began selling drugs in his late teens. He contacted Griselda Blanco, one of the most infamous members of the Medellin Drug Cartel, while she was in jail. They began exchanging letters and phone calls, and she helped him widen the scope of his cocaine dealing business and drastically increased his income. They began a romantic relationship as well. He severed ties with Griselda after she came up with a plot to kidnap John F. Kennedy Jr. Blanco was imprisoned until 2004, then she was deported to Columbia. Charles was featured in the 2008 documentary "Cocaine Cowboys II: Hustlin' With the Godmother," and he published the book "Hustling with the Godmother: My Life and Times with Griselda Blanco" in 2021.

(Photo by Angela Weiss/Getty Images for CineVegas)

Early Life

Charles Cosby was born on December 22, 1967, in Fresno, California. He grew up in Oakland with three older siblings. In a post on BlogUnion.com, Cosby stated, "From what I've been told by mother we were an idyllic family that attended church, went on camping trips and took family vacations. But with father's homosexual affairs coming to light coupled with his increasing drug use, the marriage fell apart – and so did our lives."

Charles attended Brookfield Elementary School and James Madison Middle School, and he was "an above average student." In middle school, he began thinking about pursuing a career as a lawyer, but while attending John C. Fremont High School, he started dealing drugs and "went from aspiring to defend criminals to becoming a criminal."

Angela Weiss/Getty Images

Career

In 1991, Cosby began writing to drug lord Griselda Blanco (aka the "Cocaine Godmother") in prison. After Charles started visiting Griselda in prison, she decided to bring him into her drug smuggling operation. In the documentary "Cocaine Cowboys 2," Cosby stated, "I was a millionaire 45 days after meeting her." In 1995, the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office subpoenaed Charles, and he lied about how much money Griselda had been making, saying that "she was making $2 million when it was actually 50 times that."

Cosby cut ties with Blanco after her former hitman Jorge "Rivi" Ayala agreed to testify about murders that Griselda had ordered. Blanco was potentially facing a death sentence, and she tried to organize a high-profile kidnapping, John F. Kennedy Jr., planning to use him as a negotiating tool to secure her release from prison. Charles has said that he was uncomfortable with the plan. The kidnapping never happened, but the case against Griselda fell apart after Rivi was involved in a phone sex scandal with a secretary working for the Miami-Dade State Attorney's Office. Blanco was released from prison in 2004, two years after suffering a heart attack. She was deported back to Colombia, where she was assassinated in 2012.

In 2021, Cosby published the book "Hustling with the Godmother: My Life and Times with Griselda Blanco." "New York Times" bestselling author Mark Ebner wrote the book's foreword, and he said of the book, "Charles Cosby was a kid from East Oakland, stoking dreams of one day running a crack cocaine empire. Miami-based Colombian femme fatale Griselda Blanco was the most notorious, brutal female drug trafficker the world had ever seen. Stars crossed and they aligned – in love, and the unholy drug game. No spoilers, but one of these two survived – as a role model for generations to come."

Personal Life

Charles spoke to "The Sun" about his relationship with Griselda Blanco, stating, "We first met when I was in my early twenties and she was in her late forties. She was an older woman but very attractive. She had hazel eyes, a beautiful smile and deep dimples in her cheeks. When I first set eyes on her, it was surreal. I don't know if you've been to a Rolling Stones concert but the electricity was comparable." Cosby later began seeing another woman, and Blanco subsequently ordered his assassination. Charles told "ITV This Morning" in 2024, "She tried to have me killed because I cheated on her. She hired an investigator to track me who uncovered my web of lies and deceit and betrayal, so she tried to have me killed. I was in my Corvette. I was about two miles from my mom's house in California and two guys pulled up beside me in a Mustang and started shooting at me. Luckily, I was wearing a bulletproof vest and it absorbed four bullets." Griselda had previously been married three times, and all three husbands were assassinated, reportedly on Blanco's orders.