Jorge “Rivi” Ayala From Griselda Is Still In Prison

Netflix’s Griselda is a fictional dramatization of Griselda Blanco’s drug empire in 1970s and ’80s Miami, starring Sofía Vergara in the transformational title role. The new series isn’t the first project to dramatize Blanco’s crimes — there was the Lifetime movie Cocaine Godmother in 2018 — but Griselda spans six episodes, providing more space to flesh out Blanco and her associates.

One of them was Jorge Ayala, aka Rivi, who served as Blanco’s hitman and pleaded guilty to three murders in 1993.

Ayala’s Crimes

As viewers see in Griselda, Ayala and Blanco started working together as the titular drug lord gained a foothold in Miami’s cocaine trade. Though Ayala was convicted in three murders — including the 2-year-old son of an intended victim, which plays out in the Netflix series — NBC Miami reports that he “is believed to be responsible for some three dozen murders.”

A Bizarre Twist In The Case

Griselda dramatizes the real-life phone sex scandal between Ayala and secretaries from the Miami-Dade State Attorney’s Office. As the Miami Herald reported, money, gifts, and photographs were also exchanged.

Ayala was going to be a witness against his former boss, but the scandal “weakened” his case, the Herald explained. Blanco was ultimately able to procure a plea deal in 1998.

Ayala was interviewed from prison for the 2006 documentary Cocaine Cowboys. According to the film, he was stabbed in prison on the same day Blanco was released in 2004, “but refused to identify his attacker.”

His “Last Chance” At Freedom

The latest update in Ayala’s case happened in 2013, when he was 48 years old. According to the Miami Herald, Ayala wanted the chance to seek parole on account of a “handshake deal” he claimed prosecutors made in 1993. His attorney, Jim Lewis, said this would be his “last chance and otherwise he will die in prison,” per CBS. The request was denied.

“Because supposedly he made some phone calls or had some phone sex conversations with some State Attorney’s secretaries now all of a sudden they can say, ‘Well, you messed it up. You blew the agreement,’” Lewis said at the time. “You know everybody needs to get over that. He put himself and his family at risk.”

There haven’t been any developments in Ayala’s case since then. According to the Florida Department of Corrections, he is still in prison. The Herald reports that if Ayala’s ever released, he would be deported to Colombia.