A man tied to the killing of Colombian soccer player Andrés Escobar shot dead in Mexico

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MEXICO CITY (AP) — A man allegedly tied to the killing of Colombian soccer player Andrés Escobar days after he scored an own goal during the 1994 World Cup was shot dead in Mexico, Colombian President Gustavo Petro said Friday.

Petro wrote on X that Santiago Gallón, an alleged Colombian drug trafficker who was sentenced to prison in 2010 for financing paramilitary groups in the South American nation, had been killed. He wrote that Gallón had allegedly killed Escobar, a killing that “destroyed the country’s international image.”

The killing took place in Medellin, Colombia, days after Colombia’s national soccer team, one of the favorites that year, lost in an upset to the United States.

The state prosecutor’s office from the state of Mexico, which surrounds Mexico City on three sides, confirmed that a body believed to be Gallón was found Wednesday in Huixquilucan, outside the capital. It was undergoing forensic examination to confirm the identity.

Escobar was shot several times outside a disco in Medellin on July 2, 1994, by Humberto Muñoz Castro, Gallón’s driver, after being harangued about the own goal.

Muñoz Castro, who had connections to a powerful Colombian cartel, was arrested and confessed to the killing. He refused to implicate his bosses. Found guilty, Munoz was initially handed a 43-year jail term. He served only 11 years.