NEW YORK _ If his drugs didn't kill you, he might.
Colombian drug lord Juan Carlos Ramirez Abadia testified at Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman's Brooklyn trafficking trial for a third and final day Tuesday and was questioned in detail about the 150 people he allegedly ordered killed during his stunningly violent stint atop the North Valley Cartel.
Ramirez, who styled himself as Guzman's primary cocaine supplier for nearly two decades, admitted he once paid $338,776 to have the brother of rival kingpin Victor Julio Patino Fomeque murdered.
"It was a big group of hit men," he said, explaining the sum.
By comparison, he said a $45,000 entry on his accounting ledgers reflected a payment for the murder of three people. He couldn't remember their names, he said.
Ramirez said he personally killed one man himself in 2004.
"You shot him in the face ... (at) the distance of one meter?" defense lawyer William Purpura asked.
"Yes," the witness replied.
He said he also ordered the deaths of seven people who tried to kidnap his son. Meanwhile, a man who worked for his distribution business in Fort Lee, N.J., was executed for stealing, he said.
"As a result of that, a mother, a father and a son were executed _ correct?" Purpura asked.
"That's what I believe. Yes, sir," Ramirez said.
"The murders were committed because (they) could not strictly obey the rules of the organization, correct?" the lawyer asked.
"Yes, sir," Ramirez replied.
He also agreed his cartel cohort Ivan Urdinola Grajales seemed to "favor" the use of chainsaws in some of the deadly violence tied to their trafficking.
Ramirez is a star government witness at Guzman's trial.
Before his 2007 arrest in Brazil and extradition to the U.S., Ramirez underwent multiple plastic surgeries on his face in a failed bid to escape capture.
Appearing on the witness stand with his freakish new face, he told jurors he supplied Guzman with hundreds of tons of Colombian cocaine that the Mexican drug lord smuggled into the U.S. starting in the early 1990s.
Guzman, has pleaded not guilty to more than dozen drug trafficking and conspiracy charges in the federal case.
His defense claims he's being framed by corrupt cooperators trying to broker breaks in their own federal cases.
Under follow-up questioning by Assistant U.S. Attorney Andrea Goldbarg on Tuesday, Ramirez made excuses for his brutal behavior.
"It's impossible to be a leader of a cartel in Colombia without violence. For example, if one of your shipments gets stolen ... they'll keep stealing the cocaine from you and then they're gonna kill you," Ramirez explained.
He said he had no choice but to wipe out his son's would-be kidnappers.
"If not, they're going to be more kidnappings of my family," he said.
"Being the leader of a cartel in Colombia goes hand in hand with violence. There's no cartel without violence," he testified.
