AFP, Bogota :The head of Colombian drug kingpin Pablo Escobar’s hitmen, a confessed murderer nicknamed “Popeye,” was released from prison on Tuesday after helping prosecutors convict a former justice minister.John Jairo Velasquez Vasquez has confessed to killing 300 people and organizing the killings of 3,000 others, but walked free from the Combita high-security prison in central Colombia after completing 22 years of his 30-year sentence for murder, police and judicial sources said.The hitman was convicted for the murder of presidential hopeful Luis Carlos Galan in 1989, but won release by turning state’s witness against former justice minister Alberto Santofimio, a rival candidate in the 1990 presidential election who was convicted of ordering Galan’s killing.
