HIT MAN TESTIFIES HE COLLECTED DRUG DEBTS FROM MARIO VALENCIA

TAMPA - For Carlos Robayo, killing people was "vuelta," an
errand.

Until his arrest last year, Robayo made his living in Colombia as a
hit man, collecting debts for drug traffickers and fatally shooting
people when his boss thought it necessary. He doesn't know how many
people he killed; he stopped counting.

"In drug trafficking, a lot of people die for a lot of reasons," he
said through an interpreter Tuesday in U.S. District Court.

His biggest payday came after he helped kill Danilo Gonzalez, a
retired police colonel who had helped hunt Pablo Escobar, the
notorious leader of the Medellin Cartel. For Gonzalez's murder, Robayo
said, he split $1.5 million with a group of assassins who gunned
Gonzalez down in a building lobby.

These days, Robayo is working with U.S. law enforcement. He said he
decided to cooperate with North American authorities after drug
traffickers killed three of his brothers.

Robayo testified for the government Tuesday in the case of Joaquin
Mario Valencia-Trujillo, who is standing trial on charges he was a
leader in Colombia's Cali Cartel. Valencia was the most important
target for the Tampa-based "Operation Panama Express," one of the
largest international drug investigations in U.S. history.

With deep-set, dark eyes, the small-framed, sinewy killer testified
matter-of-factly about his life of death.

"You didn't care, did you?" defense attorney Ronald Kurpiers
asked.

"In the beginning, it's hard, but then ...

"You get used to it?"

"Yes, it's a job," Robayo said.

Robayo said he twice helped efforts to collect drug-trafficking debts
from Valencia.

In 2000 or 2001, Valencia had an employee who had a business in the
United States that laundered money for Valencia, said Robayo, who
didn't remember the name of the employee. "When they had losses, he
didn't want to lose alone. He wanted to collect from Mario Valencia."

Robayo said he went to a meeting where drug traffickers talked to
Valencia about the debt. Valencia, he said, brought his own muscle
along, a former police officer called Lt. Rodriguez. Rodriguez "did
the same thing I did - collect money, kill people," Robayo said.

Robayo said Valencia became upset at the meeting and denied he owed
the money. Eventually, he said, Valencia agreed to pay. But afterward,
he said, Rodriguez came looking for the employee. "He said this man
had to be killed because Mr. Mario was upset and he didn't owe the
money."

In 2002, Robayo said, he was part of a group of gunmen who tried to
collect money from Valencia on behalf of Pedro Navarrete, who had been
arrested. Navarrete has testified that Valencia owed him millions for
smuggling drugs, and he needed the money to pay attorneys and plan an
escape.

Again, Robayo said, Valencia denied owing the debt. After several
meetings, Valencia agreed to pay $600,000 in cash and gave the group
several cars, including a bulletproof Toyota, a Land Rover and a BMW.
He also turned over a parcel of land, which turned out to be in
someone else's name.

Then Valencia was arrested.

Robayo said he got into the drug business through his wife's uncle,
whom he referred to as Capachivo. Capachivo was "the gunman" in a
group of traffickers, Robayo said. "He was the one in charge of
collecting money and killing people."

Robayo was about 20 years old and worked on a horse farm. He said drug
traffickers would bring people to the farm, and he would help tie them
up so they could be tortured and interrogated.

Then he began collecting debts and killing people, he said. After
about five years, he was supervising a group of killers. Then, "it
would have to be something very delicate for me to go" and kill
someone, he said. "Otherwise, they would go."