 BOGOTA One of Colombia's most feared drug cartel assassins walked free on Tuesday after serving 22 years in jail for scores of murders ordered by notorious drug lord Pablo Escobar during the cocaine trafficking heyday of the 1980s, police said. Image copyright EPA Image caption There was heavy security at the entrance to Combita prison when Velasquez was released 
 
 Image copyright AFP Image caption Jhon Jairo Velasquez was Pablo Escobar's most notorious hit man 
 
 The BBC's Arturo Wallace in Bogota says Colombia is divided over his early release. One of Escobar's inner circle, Velasquez was allegedly involved in some of the most famous cartel-related crimes - including the 1989 assassination of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galan and the bombing of an Avianca commercial flight later that same year that killed all 107 on board. The drug baron ordered Velasquez to kill her, in what the hit man characterized as one of the most painful episodes of his life.
– The Colombian hit man known as "Popeye" has been freed from prison after 22 years—which works out to around 27 days for each of the 300 people he has admitted killing. John Jairo Velasquez was the chief assassin for drug lord Pablo Escobar and is believed to have had a role in thousands of killings on top of the ones for which he was imprisoned. He was freed early from his 30-year sentence after giving evidence against other criminals, and Colombia is divided on whether he deserves a second chance in society, the BBC reports. The 52-year-old—who murdered his own girlfriend on Escobar's orders—is believed to have been involved in the 1989 killing of presidential candidate Luis Carlos Galán, the kidnapping of future President Andres Pastrana, and the bombing of an Avianca flight, which killed all 107 people on board, Reuters reports. He left prison in Bogota under heavy police guard yesterday and will be on probation for the next four years. But although his testimony against others means he is now a target for hit men himself, it's not clear whether he will be receiving ongoing protection. (Another legacy from Escobar's time as cartel boss: a herd of hippos breeding out of control.)