Top Escobar assassin freed from jail

A man who confessed to hundreds of murders as head of drug kingpin Pablo Escobar’s army of assassins, has been freed from a maximum security prison under heavy police guard.

John Jairo Velasquez, better known by his nickname “Popeye,” was paroled on Tuesday evening despite protests from relatives of his many alleged victims.

He had spent 22 years behind bars for plotting the murder of a former presidential candidate, Luis Carlos Galan during the campaign for the 1990 presidential election in Colombia.