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. 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. The hitman admitted personally killing over 300 people for the cartel boss who lorded over Colombia in the 1980s and early 1990s. “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. After being released in 2014, Popeye had released a book, called ‘Surviving Pablo Escobar,’ and become an Internet personality.

Source: National Post February 06, 2020 14:12 UTC