The former right-hand man of drug lord Pablo Escobar has become a sensation on YouTube after serving 22 years in prison.
John Jairo Velasquez Vasquez, more commonly know as “Popeye” set up the YouTube channel a year after being released from a 22-year prison sentence served for his involvement in more than 3,000 murders during his time in the Medellin Cartel.
The head of Pablo Escobar’s team of assassins who calls himself “the historical memory of the Medellin Cartel” says he is determined to tell the truth.
As he says in one video: “Popeye is ready to tell all.”
The former hitman for Escobar has taken YouTube by storm by revealing truths about the life in the cartel and politics.
Pablo Escobar’s hitman responsible for 3K murders released from Colombia prison after 22 years
Already from prison, Popeye had made sensational revelations about the personality of Escobar, while also betraying some of his accomplices, politicians and the public sector, which served to support criminal investigations resulting in convictions.
Prior to his release in August 2014 for “good behavior”,” he speculated that there was an 80% chance that former rivals would kill him.
He has now taken to the social media platform to reveal the secrets of life in the cartel, alleging far-reaching links between Escobar’s organisation and prominent political figures across Latin America aswell as the lesser known personal details of one of Colombia’s greatest villains.
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Popeye was reportedly responsible for the 1989 bombing of Avianca Flight 203 in Colombia, which killed 107 people, and for the assassination of presidential candidate Luis Galan, which plunged the country into a bloody period of narco-violence.
Public interest in this dark period in Colombia’s history is reflected by the spiraling popularity of this YouTube channel.
Since its inception in August 2015, the channel has become hugely popular and currently has in excess of 90,000 subscribers as well as hundreds of thousands of views.
