- Drug Trafficking: Pablo Escobar's biggest hitman, 'Popeye', suffers from terminal cancer
The former head of hitmen of the dejected head of the Medellin Cartel Pablo Escobar, Jhon Jairo Velásquez Vásquez, aka 'Popeye', died Thursday in a hospital in Bogotá due to stomach cancer, the National Penitentiary and Prison Institute of Colombia reported ( Inpec).
'Popeye' was "hospitalized since December 31, 2019, and suffered from stomach cancer ," the Inpec said in a statement that said the death occurred at the National Cancer Institute.
The killer suffered from the disease in the terminal phase and had metastases in the lungs, liver and other organs.
Velasquez was captured on May 25, 2018, accused of a concert to commit crime and extortion.
'Popeye' never regretted his numerous crimes, although being in jail he met some of his victims or relatives.
He always boasted that he was Escobar's hired assassin and on his forearms he had the phrase " The Mafia General " tattooed, which he liked to exhibit.
In several interviews with local media, he said that when I killed a person "I didn't start to sweat or smoke marijuana; I killed him, I went to the house, I bathed, I started to watch television and I lived normal because I'm a professional killer."
Before returning to prison, 'Popeye' spent more than 23 years in jail, and in several interviews he said he had reintegrated into society .
In recent years it had become a phenomenon on YouTube, where he called himself "Popeye Repentant", and before several media around the world who interviewed him he showed a supposed new attitude and told his story next to Escobar.
The hitman acknowledged that he killed at least 300 people directly and that as head of hitmen of the Medellín cartel he participated in some 3,000 homicides in the 1980s and 1990s.
'Popeye' was born in the town of Yarumal, Antioquia, was one of the most fearsome murderers of the Medellin cartel and his criminal actions were linked to events that in Colombia caused great consternation such as the murder of former presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán Sarmiento, the attack on the Avianca plane that left 107 dead and the bomb to the building of the secret police of Colombia.
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