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Thursday, February 6, 2020

Escobar's hitman Jhon "Popeye" Velásquez dies in Colombia

Chivis Martinez Borderland Beat  Source



He killed hundreds of people for Colombian kingpin Pablo Escobar and his Medellín Cartel, but in the end the assassin known as “Popeye” went out not by a bullet but by natural causes, dying of stomach cancer at a Bogotá hospital.

Jhon Jairo Velásquez, 57, died Thursday, Colombia’s National Penitentiary and Prison Institute confirmed to media outlets. The mass killer, who got his nickname because he had once reportedly done a stint in the Colombian navy, had been in hospital since Dec. 31. He had been re-imprisoned in 2018 after first being released from prison in 2014, having served an initial 23 years after turning himself in in 1992.
 
With Escobar

The hitman admitted personally killing over 300 people for the cartel boss who lorded over Colombia in the 1980s and early 1990s. Escobar would be riddled with bullets on a Medellín rooftop in December 1993 after Colombian forces, America’s Drug Enforcement Administration and Escobar’s one-time drug world partners conspired, loosely, to finally end his reign. A constant presence at Escobar’s side, Popeye had been one of his main go-to hitmen — known as a sicario — helping the boss to set up hits on politicians, judges, prosecutors and police, as well as bombings that terrorized a nation descending into chaos fueled by the drug trade.

Galán, a revered figure in Colombia to this day, was viewed as being on the verge of a political breakthrough when assassins with machine guns stormed a political rally he was speaking at.

The Avianca bombing saw Escobar’s cartel explode a jet liner as it traveled from Bogotá to the western city of Cali, killing all 107 people on board and three people on the ground.


Presidential candidate César Gaviria, believed to have been the bomb’s target, wasn’t even on board, having decided against the flight at the last minute. Popeye told the Daily Beast in 2018 that the briefcase bomb was “a work of art.” It had been set off after the cartel persuaded an impressionable youth to open the case in mid-flight, by telling him they wanted to use it to record a passenger’s conversation. Instead, it triggered the explosion. The cartel had been bent, at that time, on taking out politicians who indicated that they would be willing to extradite cartel members to the U.S. Gaviria and Galán were two such politicians; Gaviria would go on to become president.

“We were all aware that if the bomb exploded in the wrong place it wouldn’t ignite the plane’s fuel tanks, and the captain could save the plane,” Popeye told the Daily Beast. “So we created a domino effect with the fuel stored in the wings of the plane, the dynamite in the briefcase and the pressurisation of the aircraft — a lethal composition.”

41 comments:

  1. His guilt gnawed on him from the inside out. Karma is a bitch.

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    Replies
    1. 3:42 guilt?
      Never got on his way to documentaries and interviews or on his way to the tattoo parlor...
      One more convenient death just as drug trafficking murderer and former presidente de Cooloombia Alvaro Uribe Velez "el Varito", formerly employed at Aeronautica Civil by Don Pablo Escobar Gaviria needs to get rid of probable witnesses on his trials for cover-ups.
      In the war for the drug trafficking business, pablo Escobar lost to more organized businessmen, just as the italian mafiosos lost their casinos to american businessmen on the US, along with other businesses like drug trafficking, war, politics, and money laundering...
      John Jairo was in prison for extorting former associates who owed money to his organization, let's not forget important things like that.

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  2. The tattoos on this lame 😂 lol! Typical tatted up trash.

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    1. Serio straight garbage ass idiot fuck that fool

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    2. Do you have tattoos?? This guy as credibility, spend most of his life in the mafia/cartel in Colombia, the rest of his life in prison..use logic before criticizing others..in prison is normal to get tattoos cause they can't be taken away from you..I honestly think you are jealous and you are the "real hating lame" dont hate participate.

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  3. Good riddance, POS

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  4. Ovidio is The pablo Escobar of México

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    Replies
    1. Not even close, very ignorant. Ovidio was born into wealth and privilege. He didn't have to kill his way or outsmart his way up any ladder. Pablo would have eaten him for lunch.

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  5. RIP J.J u was a good man

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  6. Must had been all that cocaine he consumed when he was the killer for escobar

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  7. That’s great news and I am happy to read that he was jail since 2018.

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  8. I wonder why no one capped his sorry ass..

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  9. Man what a dirty pile of shit this man is. When i saw his name i was hoping someone had murder him it's very unfortunate he got to go out naturally.

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  10. Rest in piss. Hope it hurt like hell.

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  11. In Colombia Pablo Escobar put The goverment on it's kness in México ovidio Guzmán The first capo to put The goverment on it's kness. Medellín and Sinaloa two cities of drug barons and beautiful woman

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    1. Ignorant comment from a snitchaloa nut hugger. How did it end for Escobar? Is his family well off in the long run?

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    2. It was Archivaldo not ovidio who ordered all that movement and Sinaloa is a State not a city...10

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    3. No mames Mencho shot helicopters down and had Jalisco on lock down chapos barely had a city on lock down lmfao good try also them old school CAF members used to give the army hell remember that

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    4. Wasn't he ready to go? Then his older brothers & other cartel members didn't let them take him away?

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    5. Someone is boosting Ovidio's perception of a powerful man. He's small fries compared to his peers.
      Daddys fortunes along with some accounts to make ends meet.

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  12. Why do all of you on here hate him so much? Serious question. That was his line of work

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    Replies
    1. Theres nothing honorable about being a degenerate thug thats to stupid to realize hes looked down on like trash

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    2. “His line of work”

      STFU

      What if he killed innocent people?
      What if that innocent person was your loved one?

      I have no respect for those people. In no Cartel.

      -the guy who knows nothing

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    3. Being a real estate agent is a line of work. Being a chef is a line of work. Being a drug addict that is responsible for murdering god knows how many people including women and children is NOT a line of work.

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    4. Mass murder is OK if it's your job?

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    5. Not 7:28, he thought he was a splendid fella!

      I'd wager all of my money and say it was cause he enjoyed killing innocent people...

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    6. He called shooting down an aircraft full of innocent people a “work of art” need i say more?

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    7. I think the killing of innocent people and the ensuing "collateral damage" sets people off. If he was just killing criminals and not innocent people (which is almost impossible) it doesn't seem to enrage people so much.

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    8. How about bombing an airliner, killing hundreds of daughters, sons, wives and husbands? No? OK, how about being one of the most prolific serial killers in history? Still no?

      Go back to your game of COD in your mother's basement.

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    9. His "chosen" line of work was to murder people for money. You sound like you have no moral compass at all. Come on man

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    10. Decent people don't approve of his illegal and immoral line of work.

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    11. So if someone kills your family members because it's their line of work that OK with you?

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  13. All the cartel guys are scumbags just like this POS!

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  14. Have fun burning in hell Popeye. Hope it was worth it.

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  15. It’s unbelievable to see how people worship ovidio like if he was a god

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  16. I have news for you, MG42. There is no heaven or Hell..this life is all there is. So yeah.

    ReplyDelete

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