BOGOTÁ, Colombia—By his own account, Jhon Jairo Velásquez killed hundreds of people in the name of Pablo Escobar’s Medellín cartel, as the crime group flooded the U.S. with cocaine in the 1980s and ’90s and battled the Colombian state and its American allies. Though the man known as “Popeye,” for his time in the navy, openly feared being slain by rivals, he instead died Thursday of esophageal cancer at a Bogotá hospital at age 57. The hit man had been back in jail since 2018 as investigators probed newly discovered ties to...

Source: Wall Street Journal February 06, 2020 20:26 UTC