Dangerous man
given that work and carried out his orders. I found the guy and just shot him dead. I felt nothing. It was the same for everyone I carried out. The idea that a person cannot sleep for thinking about killing someone never applied to me. The deeds that I have done never deprived me of sleep.” And his work brought him rich rewards. He goes on: “I remember the Medellin lottery was set to payout 80 million pesos and when Don Pablo gave me a killing to carry out he phoned to say ‘Popeye, how much does the lottery pay? 80 million pesos (£20,370). I can make you richer than any lottery. I give you 100 million (£25,460) – go now and find that man and kill him’. I simply did what he asked and he paid me the money.”
They were huge sums – even today the average Colombian wage is just £6,300.
Popeye, given his nickname for his protruding jaw – since corrected through surgery – also acted as Escobar’s bodyguard. When the cartel boss was given five years in his own prison, known as La Catedral and built in a deal with the Colombian government, Popeye went too. Despite supposed incarceration, Escobar maintained his drug empire, netting £4billion per year while continuing to sanction kill after kill. When word reached him the Moncada and Galeano brothers had been siphoning off Medellin cartel profits, Escobar invited them to La Catedral for a “chat”. Once inside the hilltop prison, he gave the order for them to be tortured and killed. Without a hint of emotion, Popeye says: “I cut off their legs and arms, then burned the bodies. They wronged, we righted it.” Velásquez surrendered to authorities in 1992 just a year before Escobar was tracked down by police and killed in a shootout. At the time of his arrest, Popeye said: “I don’t owe anything to anybody. I haven’t done anything wrong.” But after 22 years behind bars for killing presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan in 1989 – the only murder he was convicted of – Popeye was released two years ago.
He lives in hiding and believes there’s an 80 per cent chance one of his many enemies will kill him. That might be because he gave up the names of cartel henchmen in a plea deal with authorities.
Although now expressing some remorse, Popeye insists his victims were all casualties of “the war”.
He denies he was a murderer and feels no guilt – claiming he had no choice but to obey Escobar’s orders.
He said: “I’m also a victim of Don Pablo. I was not responsible for the assassinations.
“I was a professional killer and nowadays I have reconsidered it. I am a repented and reformed man.
“If possible I am looking for reintegration back into society. I am still capable of killing but unless I am cornered I hope I will never have to do it again.”
Escobar had this aura, this magnetism. Day I met him I knew I’d die for him if I had to HITMAN ‘POPEYE’ ON HIS LOYALTY TO COCAINE KING PABLO