Suspect murdered 32 years after the murder of Colombian soccer star Andrés Escobar after an error in a match against the United States

A drug trafficker linked to the 1994 murder of Colombian soccer star Andrés Escobar has been murdered in Mexico, President Gustavo Petro said Friday.

Santiago Galón Henao had been investigated for the death of Escobar, a central defender for the Colombian national team, who was gunned down in Medellín days after scoring an own goal in a match against the United States in the 1994 World Cup.

The own goal contributed to Colombia’s elimination in the first round of the tournament.

The murder of the 27-year-old shocked the football world and Colombia, which at the time was plagued by violence. Medellín was controlled by drug traffickers, with a homicide rate of 380 per 100,000 inhabitants.

Galón and his brother allegedly confronted Escobar at a nightclub on July 2, 1994, just 10 days after the own goal.

The brothers’ driver, Humberto Muñoz Castro, admitted to shooting Escobar several times in the nightclub parking lot. According to eyewitnesses, Muñoz shouted “goal!” every time he shot. He later confessed to the murder and was sentenced to prison. He received a 43-year sentence and was released after 11 years, according to the Bogota Post.

The men were thought to have lost badly after betting on Colombia’s performance in the World Cup.

Petro said in X that Galón was murdered on Thursday in Mexico and that he was responsible for Escobar’s murder.

The murder of the soccer star “destroyed the country’s international image,” said the leftist president.

Galón was shot dead in a restaurant in Huixquilucan, a municipality in the State of Mexico, a source from the Toluca Prosecutor’s Office told News.

Galón and his brother were investigated for obstruction of justice and spent 15 months in prison without being brought to trial.

They were blacklisted by the US Treasury Department for drug trafficking in 2015, accused of being members of La Oficina de Envigado, successor to the drug trafficker. Pablo Escobar’s Medellin Poster.

Escobar’s 1991 murder was chronicled in the ESPN documentary “The Two Escobars,” which drew parallels between the soccer star and the international drug trafficker.