Roberto "Veneno" Ramos (died 1991) was a Colombian criminal who was associated with the Medellin Cartel. He was nicknamed "veneno", meaning "poison", and he was a feared sicario (hitman) until he was killed in the La Dispensaria raid in the Modelia neighborhood of Bogota by the Search Bloc alongside Dante Manjarrez and Jose Santin.
Biography[]
Roberto Ramos was born in Bogota, Colombia to a poor family, and he joined the Medellin Cartel to make a living for himself. Ramos became a sicario (hitman) for Pablo Escobar and his organization, and he was responsible for sixteen murders. In March 1981, he was sent to DEA agent Steve Murphy's apartment to assassinate him and his wife, but they were gone; he instead hanged their cat and ransacked their place. He would be called on several times by Escobar over the following years, and Ramos was responsible for murdering those who could bear witness against Escobar's crimes prior to his run for congress in 1982, the kidnapping of Diana Turbay in 1990, and the Cali soccer field massacre that same year. Ramos claimed that he had 65 confirmed kills, leading to some debates with fellow hitman La Quica, who believed that he had more kills than him. One time, Ramos made $2,000,000 by killing two policemen, collecting the bounties that Escobar had put out for them.
Assassination[]
A post-mortem picture of Ramos, 1991
Because of the threat that he posed to the government and its agents in Colombia, the DEA kept him under surveillance, and they were able to intercept a call from his satellite phone from a plane above the city in 1991. Ramos decided to party with Jose Santin, a fellow hitman, at La Dispensaria in the Modelia neighborhood of Bogota that night. Steve Murphy informed Search Bloc colonel Horacio Carrillo about the whereabouts of the hitmen, and the Search Bloc opened fire on the patrons of the club, killing everyone inside. Ramos' death led to Escobar posting a $500,000 bounty on any DEA agent in Colombia.