Colombia: assassins chief of Escobar dead

(ANSA) - BOGOTA ', FEBRUARY 6 - Jhon Jairo Velásquez, better known by the nickname' Popeye 'and former chief of the killers of Colombian drug trafficker Pablo Escobar, died today in Bogotà of cancer of the esophagus. This was announced by Radio Caracol.
In prison where he was serving a long prison sentence, 'Popeye' had been hospitalized in the Cancer Institute of the Colombian capital since December 31 last year. He was about to turn 58. After serving 23 years in prison, Escobar's right-handed man was released from prison in 2014, but he returned there after his central role in leading a gang dedicated to extortion and persecution of political militants, including some of the former presidential candidate, emerged. and left senator, Gustavo Petro.
In testimony during the trials, he recognized that he had directly killed at least 300 people and that he had participated, as the chief assassins of the Medellín Cartel, in the murder of another 3,000 between the early 1980s and the late 1990s.