Pablo Escobar's feared chief hitman Jhon Jairo 'Popeye' Velasquez dies

February 6, 2020

Pablo Escobar’s feared hitman ‘Popeye’ dies from cancer: Colombian drug lord’s enforcer, who boasted of murdering 300 people, is dead aged 57

Velasquez claimed he was involved in the planning of more than 3,000 killings
He was linked to bombing of Avianca Flight 203 which killed 107 people in 1989
The killer was jailed in 1993 – the year of Escobar’s death – but released in 2014
Velasquez had been back in jail since 2018 on suspicion of extortion

Colombian drug lord Pablo Escobar’s former chief hitman Jhon Jairo ‘Popeye’ Velasquez has died today at the age of 57.

Velasquez served a life sentence after admitting to killing 300 people and ordering the deaths of 3,000 more as he violently enforced Escobar’s legendary reign of terror.

He was jailed in 1993 – the year Escobar was gunned down by police in his home town of Medellin – but was released in 2014.

Colombia’s National Penitentiary and Prison Institute (INPEC) confirmed that Velasquez died in the early hours of the morning in the National Cancer Institute in the capital Bogota.

Reports state he had been hospitalised in the institute since December 31, 2019, with cancer of the oesophagus, which had reportedly spread to his lungs, liver and other organs.

Drug lord Pablo Escobar’s former chief hitman Jhon Jairo ‘Popeye’ Velasquez has died today at the age of 57

Drug lord Pablo Escobar’s (left) with his former chief hitman Jhon Jairo ‘Popeye’ Velasquez

After acting as an international drug lord based in Medellin, Colombia since the early 1970s Pablo Escobar was shot dead by a special police unit on a rooftop in the same city in 1993

The INPEC said he had been under arrest since May 25, 2018 on suspicion of extortion and conspiracy to commit a crime.

The accusations led to his provisional detention at the maximum-security Valledupar prison in the northern Colombian department of Cesar.

Popeye was the leader of the hitmen of the Medellin Cartel run by Escobar until his death in 1993 when he was shot dead on a roof top in his home town in Colombia by a specialist police unit.

He had previously been found guilty of terrorism, drug trafficking and murder.

He reportedly planned the homicide of former presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan, who was shot to death in 1989, and the bombing of Avianca Flight 203 which killed 107 people in 1989.

The hitman himself said he was directly responsible for around 300 murders and was involved in the planning of the deaths of around 3,000 people.

Velasquez was in prison between 1993 and 2014.

His sentence was reduced after being a key witness in linking many cases to his former boss Escobar following his death in December 1993.

He referred to himself as ‘Pablo Escobar’s trusted assassin’ but tried to paint himself as a reformed character after his release from prison in 2014.

Killer: By the time Vasquez (right) was arrested in 1992, he had killed 250 people – including his own girlfriend – and detonated over 250 car bombs

Heartless: Escobar’s right-hand man, Vasquez (as a young man, left and in 2015, right) says he feels no guilt for the hundreds he murdered because they were all casualties of ‘the war’

As Escobar’s head hitman, ‘Popeye’ executed – either personally or on his orders – thousands of people deemed to be a threat to his cocaine trafficking empire, including policemen, journalists, politicians and judges, while innocent civilians were also inevitably caught up in the carnage.

After meeting Escobar through a childhood friend when he was 18, Vasquez’s first ‘contract’ was to kill a bus conductor in Medellin who had enraged Escobar after he didn’t help a friend’s mother who fell as she got off the bus, and died.

He later said: ‘I made some enquiries, found the guy and killed him. I felt nothing. That idea that a person cannot sleep for thinking about dead people doesn’t apply to me.

‘Neither did I need to take drugs, or smoke, or take pills to calm myself down. The deeds that I have done don’t deprive me of sleep.’

In an interview from a mountain hideout in 2015 – where he was in fear of his life from relatives of his many victims – he insisted all those he killed were casualties of ‘the war’ and claimed he is not a murderer but that ‘the circumstances make the man’.

He said his former boss Escobar – once ranked by Forbes magazine as the world’s seventh-richest man – was far more powerful than anyone had imagined before he was finally gunned down by US DEA agents after a rooftop showdown in 1993.

Velasquez being taken into custody in May 2018 on suspicion of extortion and conspiracy to commit a crime

Velasquez, aka ‘Popeye’, visits the tomb of his former boss Pablo Escobar at the Montesacro Cemetery in Medellin in 2015. Escobar was shot dead by police in Medellin in 1993

Vasquez said that Escobar’s £20billion fortune had even enabled him to take control of Colombia’s intelligence agency, the Administrative Department of Security (DAS).

The department, which was dissolved in 2011, provided security to state institutions, politicians and other figures, as well as having a role similar to that of America’s FBI, with investigative and counter-intelligence responsibilities.

He said: ‘Without the involvement of DAS in the 1980s the murders of many politicians, as well as drug traffickers who were enemies of the Medellin Cartel, would not have happened.

‘In 1986, with Alberto Romero and Carlos Castaño, we took control of DAS, with our cash. DAS was funded with money from the Medellin Cartel.’

As well as hundreds of other murders, ‘Popeye’ achieved notoriety for a string of attacks on well-known members of the Colombian government.

He kidnapped and tortured a future Colombian president and vice-presidents, he killed an Attorney General, and helped plot the murder of Colombian presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan, the only murder out of thousands for which he was convicted.

By the time he was arrested in 1992, he had killed 250 people with his own hands – including his own girlfriend – detonated over 250 car bombs, and was linked to the 1989 bombing of an Avianca jet, which killed 107 people, just to assassinate one traveller, another presidential candidate.

But despite having taken so many lives, Vasquez claims he had no choice but to obey Escobar’s orders and feels no guilt for the crimes.

Murder: Vasquez was linked to the 1989 Avianca jet crash (pictured) in which 107 people died. A bomb detonated on the plane was meant to kill presidential candidate Cesar Gaviria but he changed his travel plans at the last minute

Absolute power: Vasquez claims the infamous drug lord Escobar, who was gunned down by United States Drug Enforcement Administration agents in 1993 (pictured), was more powerful than anyone had ever imagined

‘King of Cocaine’: Netflix series Narcos charts the rise of Medellin cartel boss Escobar (played by Brazilian actor Wagner Moura, pictured)

He said in the 2015 interview: ‘I’m also a victim of Escobar. I was not responsible for the assassinations.’

Of the plane bombing, ordered by the drug kingpin so Colombia’s 1990 presidential election would not intervene with his ruthless ambition, Vasquez admitted: ‘I took part, but Pablo Escobar planned it.

‘I handed over the money to plant the bomb, but I’ve already paid for that.’

And he insisted the atrocity, which failed to kill its target after candidate Cesar Gaviria changed his travel plans at the last minute, only happened, like so many other of the Medellin Cartel’s infamous attacks, because the intelligence agency DAS was under Escobar’s control.

Victims of the war: A bloodied corpse lies near the Colombian Congress building where, in 1989, an explosion allegedly set off by the Medellin cartel injured several people

Tools of terror: This image of various guns on Popeye Vasquez’s Facebook page comes with the caption: ‘Weapons that have been confiscated from Pablo and his people at the Museum of national police in Bogota’

At its peak, the Medellin Cartel supplied 80 per cent of the worldwide cocaine market and generated at least $420million (£270million) in weekly revenue.

Escobar’s brother once revealed the organisation was making so much cash that they used to spend £1,200 a month on rubber bands just to hold it in bundles.

At Escobar’s palatial estate, the drug lord lived an extravagant lifestyle. As well as a private zoo, including a herd of 50 hippos imported from Africa, he also flew in beauty queens and famous musicians for entertainment and would reportedly sent helicopters to pick up his favourite hamburgers.

But outside, his ruthless cocaine monopoly turned his home city Medellin into a war zone and made Colombia the murder capital of the world, as the gang mercilessly killed anyone who tried to stop him.

Who was Pablo Escobar, leader of the Medellin Cartel?

Pablo Emilio Escobar Gaviria was a Colombian drug trafficker.

During his time at the helm of the Medellin Cartel he controlled over 80 per cent of the cocaine shipped to the US.

This earned him the rank of one of Forbes Magazine’s ten wealthiest people in the world.

Escobar entered the cocaine trade in the early 1970s, collaborating with other criminals to form the Medellin Cartel.

Despite his role as a drug lord Escobar earned popularity by sponsoring charity projects and soccer clubs.

However terror campaigns run by Escobar resulted in the murder of thousands turned the public against him.

By the mid-1980s, Pablo Escobar had an estimated net worth of $30 billion and cash was so prevalent that Escobar purchased a Learjet for the sole purpose of flying his money.

More than 15 tons of cocaine were reportedly smuggled each day, netting the Cartel as much as $420 million a week.

Colombian law enforcement finally caught up to Pablo Escobar on December 2, 1993 in a middle-class neighborhood in Medellin.

A firefight ensued and, as Escobar tried to escape across a series of rooftops, he and his bodyguard were shot and killed.

Source: Biography.com

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